Fade to black: EP 9 - Concussion
by maxrpg
Summary: SG-1 face life, loss, birth and death in Earth's darkest hour – has their 'surprisingly good habit of beating the odds' finally come to an end. Myths & Legends are often based on true events, but the facts often get twisted and lost as they're told and retold over time. *This story may be a bit scary for some readers, it does get a bit dark*
1. Seeing red

**A/N:** So here we are, at the final part of my 3-part Journey story series. I hope you've enjoyed it so far and I really hope you'll like this one as well, action, drama, comedy, death, life, loss, love and some big twists that you hopefully won't be expecting - it's only the first chapter and I'm already finding it hard to write in such a way that I don't give too much away too soon. This one is for all SG-1, SGA and SGU fans because we'll be seeing them all in this story so get ready for a crazy ride through the gate :)

**Warning:** Character(s) death, violence, torture

* * *

**- The Journey - Part 3 -**

**Concussion**

* * *

**Prologue **_  
_

I awoke disoriented and confused laying on the cold hard stony ground at the top of some narrow stairs, it was dark and the air was filled with thick choking clouds of dust that were slowly dissipating allowing a dim light to pass through, then sounds from below, I heard coughing and shouting.

Someone repeatedly called out, they were calling a name, a name that was so familiar, then the memories of what just happened came flooding back, and I instantly recognised the name, it was my name they were calling.

I was about to call out to them when I suddenly felt very strange, a horrendous pain flooded my head causing me to lower myself to the ground, my mind began to wonder, I couldn't think, my mind filled with thoughts and memories of things I don't remember doing, my whole body began to tremble, then I realised what it was, I had felt it once before, many years ago, a pain I never wished to experience again for as long as I live.

When I opened my eyes I saw my hands, they were glowing, was I on fire, I panicked and tried to call out for help, but my lips froze mid-call, suddenly I couldn't speak, I couldn't move, I could barely breath and I felt myself slipping away, I saw a shadow emerging from the dust below, a man appeared, I was so relieved at who it was and all I wanted to do was run to him, but I couldn't move, I tried to call out but I couldn't, I screamed and I screamed and he couldn't hear me.

My strength was leaving me, it felt like I was falling asleep, then my hands pushed on the ground and lifted me up, but it wasn't me, I had no control, I knew what was coming, there was no coming back from this.

I found myself standing at the top of the steps looking down at him, he stepped forward and softly spoke my name, although my mind was quickly leaving me, I still thought of a thousand things I wanted to say to him, but only one thought mattered.

I don't know how, but I managed to find the strength, and in those final moments, as a veil of yellow consumed my vision, I managed to speak the words that mattered... "I love you.".

* * *

**Chapter 1**

* * *

Over the past couple weeks the leaders and governments of the world have been on high alert and preparing for the imminent arrival of a new threat – who's origins and motivation are still unclear, so far the only information they have was from the artificial intelligence known as 'Nym', which SG-1 encountered on their previous mission while exploring ruins on P3X-474, a planet which has since been consumed and destroyed.

All they know is that an enemy of unknown origins appears to be ripping its way across the universe destroying everything and killing everyone in its path, a path which is heading directly for Earth.

Nym's race was unable to stop it and their entire galaxy was obliterated within a matter of days, if Earth and it's allies are unable to stop them, then the Milky Way galaxy and every galaxy in between could suffer the same fate, a fate they refuse to accept.

While the governments of Earth gather their resources and prepare to mount a defence any way they can, scientists, researchers, astronomers, archaeologists, historians, SG-1 and more than 30 other teams have been pouring through books, charts, data and scouring the galaxy trying to find anything they can that will help them.

So far they've found nothing of any use.

* * *

**On board 'The Alliance'**

For the last 18 hours, some of SG-1 have been travelling to and from a number of their allies planets, bringing them much needed weapons and hyper-drive engines so they can be retro-fitted to their ships, they'll need as many ships as they can, they're also helping to relocate several hundred thousand people from planets that don't have Stargate's in order to get them out of arms way and to a much safer location where they can at least be defended if necessary.

They've just finished unloading supplies on P3X-595 and are now on their way to P3X-599 to pick up more people for transport to a safer location, Sam is on the bridge in the first pilots chair next to Captain Swanson, due to her current condition, Jack didn't want Sam to come along telling her she would be safer on Earth, Sam disagreed and came along anyway, though she has promised to try and take it easy.

Sam briefly turns her head after seeing movement from the corner of her eye, Jack and Teal'c just entered the bridge from the corridor, "Hey guys." she says.

"Hey." replies Teal'c, in a humorous manner.

Sam turns her head to face them, she thought it was unusual for Teal'c to speak in such a way, Jack and Teal'c stand looking back at her with grins on their faces, "What?" she asks.

Teal'c walks towards Sam, swinging his arms from around his back he hands her a small parcel with a gentle bowing of his head.

"Oh.." says Sam, a little surprised, the parcel is 'intricately' wrapped in gift paper.

"A gift." says Teal'c.

"What are these?" asks Sam, looking at the pattern on the wrapping paper.

"Cutlery, I believe it is a traditional image of the arrival of a child." replies Teal'c.

Jack leans in towards Teal'c, "That's...Storks!, Teal'c." he says in to his ear, "..not forks." he adds.

Teal'cs grin turns to a mute expression, he looks displeased with himself for making such a silly mistake.

"Don't worry Teal'c, it's fine honestly. It's nice paper." says Sam.

Teal'c grins again but only slightly, "The wrapping is irrelevant, you must open it." he says.

Sam gets a grip on one of the parcels corners and starts to rip it.

"Er – no no I wouldn't...I" blurts Jack, "Never mind." he adds, glancing back and forth at Teal'c.

Sam finished tearing off the wrapping and lets it fall to the floor, she opens a box revealing a blue and white wool knitted pair of baby booties, she gasps with joy, "Ooh there adorable, Teal'c.", she stands up and hugs him before sitting back down, "Thank you." she says, holding them close to her chest and looking at Teal'c.

Teal'c bends down and picks up the crumpled and torn paper off the floor, "You are most welcome, Samantha-Carter." he says, he looks distraught, he then gives Sam a respectable bow of his head before turning and slowly exiting the bridge.

"Is he all right?" asks Sam.

"Yeah, he just...it took him four and a half hours to wrap that thing. We should have him checked for OCD when we get home." replies Jack.

"Aren't they cute." says Sam, showing Jack the booties.

"Yeah, our boy's going to love them." replies Jack.

"Boy?, you mean girl don't you" says Sam.

"We'll see." says Jack, "They're the perfect size for his chubby little toes." he adds, he gives Sam a kiss on the forehead and takes the booties in to his hands and begins to walk away, "I'll put these in my pack." he says.

"Chubby?" says Sam.

Jack turns around, "What?" he asks.

"You think our baby's going to be – chubby?" asks Sam, not sounding very happy.

"No I just meant that all babies are a little..." Jack starts to say.

Sam stands from her chair and steps over to Jack, "Do you think I'm chubby?, you think I'm fat is that it, is that why you said we're going to have a chubby baby?!" she snaps.

Jack stands briefly in confusion as to where this sudden burst of anger has come from, "Wha – NO!. I don't think you're ….I never said ..." he replies.

"What, that I'm fat. You implied it." shouts Sam.

"Oh for cryin-out-loud." moans Jack, he gently leans in and places both his hands on the tops of Sam's shoulders, "Listen, it was a perfectly innocent.." he begins to say.

Before they can finish their argument, Major Higgins picks up something on the ships sensors.

Cpt Swanson looks over to Jack and Sam "Will you two be quiet please, not on my bridge." she says, "Bring us out of hyperspace." she orders, looking back at Major Higgins, "Sam, if you wouldn't mind." she adds, indicating to Sam that she should retake her seat at the console.

"Yeah" replies Sam, taking her seat.

* * *

The Alliance drops out of hyperspace, looking out of the bridge window they see a small asteroid ahead of them.

"It's just a space rock, Ma'am." says Higgins.

Swanson agrees, "All right, plot a course around it and then take us back into hyper..." she orders.

"No – wait!" shouts Sam, extending her arm out towards Higgins.

As the asteroid slowly rotates around, they see a red light on its side.

"That's no asteroid." says Sam, she knows immediately it's one of the enemy ships.

Jack, who was standing a few feet in front of the consoles looking out of the window, turns in an instant running back to the console, he slams the palm of his hand down hard on to the alarm button and then the ships coms button, "This is Colonel O'Neill, I want everyone suited up, assembled and seated in the 302 bay ready to go, Now!."

Captain Swanson isn't fully up-to-speed on what exactly is going on, but she knows O'Neill, she's been in battle with him before and trusts his judgement completely without question, she gives the nod to Sam and Higgins, "Raise the shields, ready all weapons..." she orders, "Battle stations" she shouts, turning her head to the side giving orders to the crew behind her.

"I'm heading down to the bay." says Jack, looking at Sam.

Sam nods, while pulling the seat straps down over her shoulders, her hands are a little shaky, "All right." she replies.

Jack noticed Sam's hands shaking moments before he turned around, he turns around again a moment later and lunges back towards her, he grabs the metal buckle of her shoulder straps and clicks it in to place, reassuringly, "Keep an eye on that thing." he says.

"O'Neill" shouts Teal'c, running on to the bridge.

"Yeah, Teal'c, let's go." replies Jack, turning once again and running down the corridor.

A minute later the ship outside starts moving away from them, gradually gaining speed and moving further and further away.

"It's leaving." says Swanson.

"What's happening up there?" asks Jack over the radio, he's just entered the 302 bay and is getting his flight gear on.

"It's gone." replies Sam.

Jack looks at Teal'c for a moment, "What?, what do you mean it's gone...where'd it go?" he asks.

"It just left, Colonel." replies Swanson.

A few minutes later, Teal'c and Jack run back to the bridge, fully suited up in their flight gear and carrying their helmets, Jack walks straight up to the window and looks out, the ship has gone, he turns around "Where'd it go?" he asks.

"Perhaps it did not wish to engage us in battle, O'Neill. A scout ship perhaps." says Teal'c.

"Looks like we're in the clear, Colonel." says Swanson.

Swanson suddenly hears the worried voice of her second officer coming from her left, "Err...Ma'am." says Higgins, followed by the beeping pulse of the proximity sensors.

Sam, Jack, Swanson, Teal'c, Higgins and other members of the crew turn and look out of the window as the beeps get more rapid and closer together, off in the distance they see and watch a tiny red dot moving left across the 'horizon', then it appears to turn and the tiny red dot gets bigger and bigger and bigger...


	2. Interference

As the ship gets closer and closer to them, the proximity sensors start beeping very rapidly and the collision alert begins to sound..

"It intends to collide with us, O'Neill" shouts Teal'c with urgency.

Jack swirls around, grabs Teal'c flight suit by the arm and drags them both away from the window, "Everybody down!" he screams.

"Brace for impact!" shouts Cpt Swanson, through the ships coms.

The enemy ships speed increases as it comes hurtling towards them, seconds later, just as the ship gets within meters of the Alliance and is about to collide with them, a blinding bright flash fills the bridge as the ship outside suddenly explodes.

The explosion is so powerful and when the blast hits the shields it pushes the front of the Alliance upwards and pushes it backwards and slightly tilted to the side, the whole ship rocks and shakes, members of the crew losing their footing, being thrown from their seats, systems shorting out, panels pop from the surrounding walls, coolant leeks from the bursting pipes above, it's at least 90 seconds before the blast wave dissipates and the Alliance becomes steady once again.

* * *

Teal'c and Jack were thrown off their feet and in to the corridor adjacent to the bridge, Teal'c crawls over to Jack whose laying face down on the floor, "O'Neill!" he says, shaking him lightly on the shoulder.

Jack raises his head a few inches and shakes it a couple of times, "What happened.." he asks, turning to face Teal'c and roll himself around and in to a sitting up position, "Did it hit us?" he adds.

"I do not believe so." replies Teal'c.

"Help me up." says Jack, and Teal'c helps him to his feet.

Once on his feet, they both run back on to the bridge, they see the crew picking themselves up and moving back to their stations and nursing their injuries, Jack instinctively runs to Sam.

"Sam..." says Jack as he approaches her, "..you all right?" he asks.

Sam is sitting in her seat rubbing the left side of her neck, "Yeah I'm all right. The straps just dug in to me a little." she replies.

Cpt Swanson is up on her feet next to Higgins at the console checking on the state of the ship, "What's our present condition?" she asks.

Higgins checks the various systems and reports...

_- Hull integrity down to 28%_

_- 14 sections on decks 4-through-7 have decompressed and have been automatically sealed_

_- Injury reports are continuing to come in but no loss of life reported_

_- Shields are off-line_

_- Weapons are off-line_

_- Long range communications are off-line and we've lost the sensors._

_- Hyperdrive engines are functioning but we've lost too much coolant and won't be able to keep them active for long._

"Okay, get repair teams on it and see if you can get a medical team up here to help the injured on the bridge." orders Swanson.

"Yes, Ma'am." replies Higgins.

"Colonel O'Neill.." says Swanson, making her way around the consoles to where Jack is standing, "..why is it every time you're on my ship it ends up in pieces." she asks.

"..Err..." sounds Jack, then just shrugs his shoulders.

* * *

Sam unbuckles her straps, "Why didn't it hit us, at the velocity it was travelling at we should all be dead." she asks.

"Maybe the shields held up better than we thought." says Swanson.

"It was not the shields that prevented our destruction." says Teal'c, slowly backing away from the window.

"Oh?" says Jack.

Just then they see a white light come in to view outside, it's an Ancient, they don't recognise who it is and can't see their face clearly.

Behind the Ancient, the dust and debris from the enemy ship seems to flow and gather in to a cloud , as the Ancient turns to see what they're looking at, a shape forms within the cloud, it appears to be a set of eyes glaring back at her, the Ancient glares back with curiosity, then the cloud breaks up and the dust disappears in to the void of space.

The Ancient turns back to face the Alliance and nods at them, Jack gives a gentle wave, then in a flash the Ancient is gone.

"Okay...that was creepy." says Jack.

"They destroyed the ship...they saved us." says Sam.

"It would appear so." says Teal'c.

"You're damn right they did." says Jack, cheerily, "Looks like we've got ourselves a defence against these things." he adds with a smile.

"Indeed." says Teal'c.

"Are you sure about that?" asks Sam.

Jack points out of the window, "Well, yeah ….you saw what they just did." he says.

"Yes but they haven't exactly been a big help in the past, why now..all of a sudden?" asks Sam.

"I don't know. We need to get back to Earth and report this thing and we'll see if Daniel can talk to these guys, then we'll know if they're going to help us or not. Agree?" says Jack.

"Fair enough." replies Sam.

Captain Swanson agrees, they need to get back to Earth anyway in order to fully repair the ship and get the injured crew attended too and replaced, she turns to Higgins, "In their current condition will the the engines be able get us back to Earth?" asks Swanson.

"..Barely.." replies Higgins.

"What about the people of P3X-599, as we have encountered a ship in this region, will they not be in danger if we leave them?" asks Teal'c.

"The ships in no condition to ferry people around right now, Teal'c, we'll come back for them." says Swanson, "Okay, turn us around, take us home." she orders.

* * *

**Area 51: New high security subterranean facility.**

* * *

The Ba'al clone, Linda, has been held at Area 51 ever since her capture a fortnight ago, the IOA has ordered that she undergo hourly interrogations until they're satisfied she's told them everything she knows about the Goa'uld, their technology and what her intentions were since fleeing Earth several months ago.

Every couple of hours she's removed from her small windowless cell and taken to another small room for interrogation, the room is a small 8-by-8 foot cube, a small table sits in the middle of the room with a chair at either side, when brought in to the room her feet are chained to the floor and her hands to the table, a single very dull light is fixed to the ceiling, so far she's resisted their attempts at getting information from her.

A member of the IOA, known only as Fred, leads the interrogation, he wears a white sweaty shirt and dark brown pants, he has a rather scruffy appearance, messy hair, unshaven face.

"...you have absolutely nothing to say?" asks Fred.

"Is there any Goa'uld technology that we don't current know about?"

_Linda: Mute_

"Do you know the location of any Goa'uld technology we don't about?"

_Linda: Mute_

"Devices, weapons, ships?"

_Linda: Mute_

"What have you been doing for the past 6 months?"

_Linda: Mute_

Fred grabs a jug of water and pours out a glass, he drinks from it, "Would you like some?" he asks, "You must be thirsty...No?...okay" he adds, then finishes drinking the water and places the glass back down.

"Come on, Linda. We've been doing this for two solid weeks and you haven't said a word, isn't there anything you're willing to tell me?." says Fred, "This would go easier for you if you started talking." he adds.

A few minutes later he reaches down and picks up a case, slides it on to the table and opens it, inside is the ball shaped device that Linda had in her possession at the time of her capture.

"What can you tell me about this?"

Linda's eyes very briefly sprung up to look at the case, she remains mute and uncooperative.

"We had it tested by our top scientists, they concluded it isn't a weapon...so what is it?"

_Linda: Mute_

"What is it's purpose?"

_Linda: Mute_

Fred exhales a frustrated breath then slams the case shut, "Fine. We'll try this again in a hour." he says, he places holds the case in his hand, grabs the jacket from the back of his chair and walks to the door, "Guard!" he shouts.

A guard unlocks and opens the door, "Take her back to her cell." orders Fred and he leaves, two guards enter the room and unchain Linda and take her out of the room.

As the guards are escorting her down the hall back to her cell, they pass by a research room, in the room are a group of people in lab coats talking and looking at images and text on a projection screen on the wall in front of them, Linda just happened to glance inside as they were passing by, she saw something on the screen that she recognised and slightly disturbed her and she takes a step back and towards the door to try get a better look but the guards stop her, a man in the room saw the commotion outside in the hall and closed the door.

"Wait..." says Linda, as the guards drag her down the hall by her arms, "I need to see it...let me see it again." she shouts.

"Shut up, you're going back to your cell." says the guard.

When they get her in to the cell room they unlock the cell door and push her inside, quickly closing and locking the steal barred door behind her, Linda turns and runs back to the door, grabbing the bars, "Let me speak to Fred, I'm ready to talk." she shouts as the guards close the outer room door behind them, "Please!" she shouts.


	3. Angels & Demons

**Atlantis – Pegasus Galaxy**

* * *

The Atlantis base personnel have been preparing for the arrival if this new enemy just as Earth has been doing for the last two weeks, due to the Daedalus being recalled, a steady stream of food an equipment has been coming through the Stargate from Earth two to three times a day.

The world leaders decided that it was best to leave Atlantis at it's current location in the Pegasus galaxy for the time being, bringing it back to the Milky Way may not do any good in the long run and they don't want to put all their eggs in to one basket – so to speak, if and when the time comes, Atlantis will need to be ready to receive evacuees from Earth.

There is a limit to the number of people they can actually take on board, if they take on too many people they won't have enough power to take off and evade a potential attack, to that end, Sheppard and his team have been searching for potential evacuation sites off-world in which to temporarily relocate the evacuees.

Sheppard and Teyla are walking the corridors, slow moving as they have to zig-zag around stacked boxes that line the walls and personnel rushing around trying to clear and store them.

"How many have we done so far?" asks Sheppard, referring to the planets explored as potential evacuation sites.

"Eight. So far only two were found to be suitable. Major Lorne and his team are currently exploring another." replies Teyla.

"Only two...what about the others, they looked fine to me." asks Sheppard.

"Apparently when the ground teams returned to the planets we explored they identified weather patterns and wild life that made them unsuitable for long term stay." replies Teyla.

"Why do they have to be so damn picky, we may not have a choice." says Sheppard.

A man walks passed them carrying a large box in his arms, the lids are slightly open, Sheppard turns when he sees what's inside the box, "Wohw hold up." he shouts, the man stops and turns around.

Sheppard walks up to him and reaches in to the box, "I need to take these." he says, as he pulls out a packet of Oreo's.

"Sir?" enquires the man, wondering why Sheppard has to take them.

"...quality control. I have to check these for...flavour." replies Sheppard, with a cheeky expression on his face, clearly telling a lie, the man turns and walks away.

Sheppard walks back to Teyla and they continue walking down the corridor, "Out of the planets that were found suitable, were any of them ours?" he asks.

"No." replies Teyla.

"Were any of them Lorne's?" asks Sheppard.

Teyla grins, "One." she replies.

"Damn!" groans Sheppard, "Well we've gotta find one, we're making ourselves look bad...Oreo?" he says

"No, thank you." replies Teyla.

They continue walking for a short while and then make a turn in to the infirmary, as they enter they see McKay laying on the top of one of the beds at the far end of the room, tapping away on his tablet computer with intense concentration.

Sheppard and Teyla glance at each other briefly as they approach and stand at the foot on the bed, "You do know we're leaving in a minute, right?" asks Sheppard.

"Humm.." sounds McKay, never taking his eyes off the tablet screen.

"McKay?" says Sheppard, "RODNEY!" he shouts.

"What?!" asks McKay, clearly frustrated by the interruption.

"The mission...we're leaving in a minute." says Sheppard.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know." replies McKay.

"Then why are you in the infirmary laying on a bed?" asks Sheppard.

"I'm waiting for err...err..Jennifer...she'll be back in a minute, she's giving me a jab." replies McKay.

"Are you ill Rodney?" asks Teyla with concern.

"What, no I'm not ill...why, do I look sick?" replies McKay, lifting his arm and placing two fingers on the side of his neck to feel his pulse, "..I was feeling a little hot earlier." he adds.

"You look fine, Rodney." says Teyla.

"Really?" asks McKay.

Sheppard is getting inpatient, "Oh I've had enough of this, come on!" he says, grabbing McKay's sleeve and pulling him off the bed.

"No, no I can't leave yet." moans McKay.

"Why?" asks Sheppard in an annoyed tone.

"I need my jab first..in fact you should all have one." replies McKay.

"You don't need a jab Rodney, let's go." says Sheppard, grabbing his sleeve again.

McKay pulls Sheppard's hand off his sleeve, "NO!" he moans, "Do you know what's on M33-811, a forest, a thick densely packed forest, much like the amazon back on Earth. Do you know how many possible diseases there could be out there, not to mention the possible thousands and thousands of poisonous plants and insects." he adds.

"Reaaally?" asks Sheppard, sarcastically.

"Yes...really." replies McKay.

"Uha. And how are these thousands and thousands of poisonous plants and insects going to infect us with their diseases when we'll be inside a JUMPER THE WHOLE TIME!." asks Sheppard, shouting at the end just to make his point.

"Oh...forgot about that. But I'm going to get it anyway, just to be sure." says McKay.

Sheppard doesn't look too happy.

"There she is now...two secs." says McKay, swiftly walking off towards Jennifer, narrowly avoiding being manhandled by Sheppard again.

"McKay" says Sheppard under his breath, "Teyla, say something." he adds.

"Just let him get his jab and then we can leave. Unless you would rather listen to him complaining the entire time we're off-world." replies Teyla.

* * *

**Earth: Stargate Command.**

* * *

After the first encounter with their new enemy and being saved by the Ancients, the Alliance, although badly damaged and a large number of crew members seriously hurt, managed to enter hyperspace and safely make it back to Earth.

Upon their arrival in Earth's orbit, the injured crew members were beamed down to the Air Force Academy Hospital, Teal'c, Sam, Jack and Cpt Swanson were asked to attend an IOA debriefing at Stargate Command to discuss recent events while a team of engineers are working quickly to repair the Alliance.

The briefing ended a few moments ago and everyone left in relatively high spirits, knowing they may finally have the help of the Ancients fighting their corner – for once.

General Landry pulled Jack to one side when the briefing ended and informed him that Linda has requested to see him, in fact she's demanding to see him. Naturally Jack didn't care and wants nothing to do with her, but Landry argued that she said she has some important information and will only talk to him.

"This is a bad idea, General." moans Jack in protest.

"Just go and see what she wants, you don't have to be nice or anything." says Landry.

Jack refused and refused but was eventually ordered to go.

* * *

**Area 51: High security subterranean facility.**

* * *

Linda is hunched up and gently rocking on her narrow cot bed and biting her fingernails, looking very nervous, she turns to look at the outer door when she hears the clanging sound of metal keys, the door opens and Jack steps inside the room.

"Don't bother locking it, I won't be long." says Jack to the guard as he closes the door behind him.

When Linda sees Jack enter the room she untangles her arms and legs and spins around to sit on the edge of the cot bed, "Jack, you came." she says.

Jack steps up to the cell bars and looks at her impatiently, "All right, let's get one thing straight, we're not friends, I'm not your buddy or your pal so don't talk to me like we are, all right!. Now, they said you wanted to tell me something...so make it quick." he says.

"You have to take me out of here first, then I'll tell you." says Linda.

"No deal. Say whatever it is you wanted to say to me or I'm leaving." says Jack.

Linda stands her ground, "...take me out of here and I'll.." she starts to say.

Jack gets annoyed as isn't in the mood, "Oor I knew it, I told Landry this was a bad idea. As for you getting out of here you better get that idea out of your head right now, because it isn't going to happen, forget about it. Have a happy life, let's not keep in touch huh - see you later." he shouts and then turns and heads for the door.

"No..wait!" shouts Linda, springing from her cot to the cell door with her arm extended through the gap in the bars as if reaching out to grab him.

Jack opens and stands by the door, "Something you want to say?" he asks.

Linda looks like she wants to say something but remains silent.

"Bye!" says Jack and he begins to leave the room.

Linda appears to panic, "Noo...err...O-O-Omitus...Omitus!" she shouts.

The cell room door stops moving an inch before closing completely, it slowly swings back open and Jack takes a step back inside.

"What did you say?"

Linda lowers her arm and grabs hold of the bars and slides to the floor on to her knees, her head lightly bangs against the bars and she begins to weep, "Omitus." she mumbles, lightly shaking her head from side-to-side.

Jack walks up to the cell and looks down at her, "Where did you hear that?" he asks.

The word 'Omitus' was spoken to SG-1 by Nym, it is part of the information that has been classified top secret and even the people at Area 51 aren't aware of it so there is no way Linda could have heard or seen it, whatever she saw in that room she passed as she was being taken to her cell, it wasn't that word.

Jack kneels in front of the cell to Linda's level, "What do you know about Omitus?" he asks.

"Old...so old...monster.." says Linda, under her breath.

"Hey, hey, look at me. What do you know about Omitus?." asks Jack, speaking slowly and clearly.

Linda slowly raises her head and connects her eyes with Jacks, "Please take me out of here, I'll tell you everything you want to know. Just don't leave me here." she asks.

Jack shakes his head and stands back up, taking a few pacing steps in the room he's conflicted in his own thoughts.

"Please Jack...Sir. I promise I'll tell you anything, you ask a question and I'll answer it I swear." begs Linda.

Every bone in Jack's body is telling him to just walk away, this is just another Goa'uld playing tricks trying to get out by making false promises, he sees her kneeling on the floor and purched against the bars with her wet eyes and cheeks, she genuinely looks scared and lost and afraid of something, but it's a Goa'uld, this is what they do...but she does know something and he can't afford to ignore it.

A few seconds later they feel a vibration all around them, it gets stronger and stronger and the whole room shakes, Linda forces herself up on to her feet, "What is that?!" she shouts, a few moments later and the shaking has stopped.

A guard enters the room, "You all right, Sir?" he asks.

"Yeah, you boys testing missiles down here or something." asks Jack.

"No Sir, it was an Earth-quake." replies the guard.

* * *

**Atlantis – Pegasus Galaxy**

* * *

Woolsey was in his office sitting behind his desk, looking a little exhausted putting his signature on a form, he places the form on to a small stack to his left then reaches over and pulls another one off of the foot high stack of paperwork to his right, being in charge isn't as good as it sounds, being the leader of the Atlantis expedition he isn't only responsible for those under his command or the day-to-day running of the city, but it also requires him to file reports and sign-off on inventory, which has quadrupled thanks to the steady stream of supplies from Earth.

As he takes another breath and battles to sign yet another form with his tired and strained wrist, he suddenly gets a strange feeling, like a shiver down his spine, he places the pen down and slowly stands up looking out in to the control room he walks out of his office and walks around for a few moments.

"Mr Woolsey?" says the control room technician, Amelia, after spotting him and seeing him looking a little distant.

"Huh?" mutters Woolsey.

"Are you all right, Sir?" asks Amelia.

"Oh..yes I'm fine." replies Woolsey, "..did you feel something just now?" he asks.

Amelia shakes her head gently, "Like what?" she asks.

"...A vibration..." replies Woolsey.

"Nope...are you sure you're all right, Sir. You have been working pretty hard over the last couple of days, you should get some rest." replies Amelia.

"Yes. Yes, actually I think I will. I'll be in my quarters if you need me. Thank you, Amelia." says Woolsey, and he heads away.

"You're welcome, Sir" replies Amelia, smiling at Woolsey's odd behaviour which has always amused her, she goes back to her duties.

Woolsey had just got to the transporter when the unmistakable loud sound of Atlantis' alarms begin to sound around him, he turns around in surprise and then starts running back to the control room, he hears the hum of Atlantis' shields forming around the city as he runs up the steps.

As he enters the control room he sees Amelia and Zelenka gathered around the sensor console and looking at the screen, "What's happening?" he shouts.

"Proximity sensors just went off." replies Amelia.

"There was a big burst of energy close to the planet, now we're picking up two energy signatures entering the atmosphere." replies Zelenka.

"Wraith?" asks Woolsey.

"No, no I don't believe so." replies Zelenka.

"Ships?...well what is it?" shouts Woolsey.

"I don't know, but they're heading right for the city. Trajectory puts them directly in line with the main tower." replies Zelenka.

They look up towards the ceiling and listen, they don't know why they do that, it's not like they can see outside, just an subconscious instinctive response.

"What's happening?" asks Woolsey in a soft tone, although only a few seconds have passed, it feels like minutes.

Zelenka pushes his glasses back in to position on his nose with his finger and looks back at the screen the moment the objects reach the shield barrier, "Breach..Breach!" he shouts in panic as the objects pass right through.

* * *

The objects appear to pass right through the top of the tower and the jumper bay, then one comes crashing through the ceiling of the gate room, personnel who were on the gate level moving boxes and crates dash out of the way covering the tops of their heads with their arms as a ball of white light crashes through the ceiling above them, the light crashes into a large crate below and appears to transform in to person, a person who then bounces of the crate and on to the floor with great force, what appears to be a large dark ball of smoke crashes through just moments later.

Personnel in the control room ducked for cover, Woolsey comes out from behind a console and hurries over to the balcony overlooking the gate level, he looks down and sees dust, bebris, boxes and crates littering the floor, a few personnel who were unlucky enough to be hit by the falling objects can be seen getting to their feet and hurrying away, he spots a woman dressed in a long white gown laying face down on the floor.

"Get medical teams up here now." orders Woolsey as he turns and starts making his way down the main staircase.

As he gets down just 5-6 steps he suddenly stops, the woman laying on the floor below raises her head, her messy and dusty hair partially covers her cut and bruised face, she looks around and then looks at Woolsey when her eyes catch him at the top of the stairs, despite her current appearance, Woolsey can still tell who it is, he recognises her immediately as he stands their in shock.

They look at each other for a few moments then break eye contact when the boxes and crates start to creek and move behind her, as they both look over towards them they suddenly burst in to the air and are thrown in every direction and emerging from the pile they see a creature hovering.

The creature has the shrivelled and bony head, torso and arms of a human, but with a wide jaw, thin long teeth, claws instead of fingers, in place of its legs is just a long winding mess of bone and rotted skin resembling a tail, as it hovers it appears to have wings made up entirely of thick black smoke.

As Woolsey makes a quick retreat back up the steps, the woman on the floor looks at it with intense fear, breathing heavily she swings her body around, when the creature looks down and growls menacingly at her, she screams loudly and starts shuffling backwards across the floor and screaming in panic as she goes.

Just then, Sheppard and group of marines run in through a corridor adjacent to the gate room, Sheppard sees the woman on the floor shuffling away, a split second later he turns and sees the creature after hearing its growl, he doesn't know how he missed it when he first came in, "What the fu..." he quietly sounds with his lips.

The creature turns and sees them stood by the corridor but completely ignores them and lunges towards the woman.

Sheppard draws his side-arm and opens fire on the creature, as do the marines behind him, this appears to p*ss off the creature as it stops mid way towards the woman and turns toward the gunfire, Sheppard runs out of ammo as it starts heading towards them, he darts out of the way when he hears the shout of his team mate running up behind him.

"Move!" shouts Ronon, who casually – yet quickly, strolls in to the gate room and opens fire with his pulse gun.

The pulse fire from Ronon's gun seems to hold the creature back and combined with the heavy fire of the marines P-90 fire the creature eventually goes down after letting out a growl of defeat, it crashes to the floor a few feet from the gate, Ronon runs over and trains his gun on it.

"It's dead." he says, after kicking and shooting it a few more times just to make sure.

"You sure?" asks Sheppard, walking up behind.

Ronon doesn't reply, he just gives Sheppard a brief look, he should have known better than to ask, if Ronon says it's dead then you can be damn sure it's dead, "Good work." says Sheppard.

"The hell is this thing?" asks Ronon.

"I don't know...don't take your eyes off it." replies Sheppard, walking over to the woman cowering on the floor with her arms over her face.

Sheppard kneels down on one knee beside her, hesitantly touching her on the arm, "Are you...you all right?" he asks.

The woman slowly removes her arms from her face, after briefly looking across the floor and seeing the dead creature, she looks at Sheppard and grabs his sleeve, "Help me..help me..please help me!" she cries, looking wide eyed and scared out of her mind.

"Step away from her, Colonel." shouts Woolsey coming down the main staircase.

"What's going on.." asks Sheppard, standing back up, "..do you know her?" he asks.

"Unfortunately, yes. Her name is Adria." replies Woolsey.


	4. Darkness

**Earth: Stargate Command**

* * *

Jack has returned to the SGC and he's brought Linda with him, he still doesn't trust her as far as he can throw her but after realising she may have information that can help them, he wants to keep her close by, General Landry is a little surprised that he brought her back with him, especially after the protest he made about having to go see her in the first place, he allows her to remain on base but under very close guard.

"Off-world gate activation." announces Walter over the speakers, Jack, Sam and Landry make their way out of the briefing room and down to gate control.

"Walter?" says Landry, standing by him and looking out towards the gate.

"It's an incoming wormhole, Sir. We don't have anyone scheduled to dial in." replies Walter.

The seventh chevron lights up and the Stargate activates with the IRIS closed.

"Receiving IDC...it's Atlantis." says Walter.

* * *

**Stargate Command: Daniel's research room**

* * *

Ever since returning from their mission to P3X-474, Daniel has been researching the fragments of information giving to him by the artificial intelligence Nym, with the 'help' of Vala he's gone through his entire inventory of books, notes, images and artefacts but has yet to find a single solid piece of information regarding the new threat they face.

Daniel is in full research mode and concentrating really hard looking through his books, Vala is sitting at the opposite side of his desk sucking a cherry flavoured lollipop and reading a fashion magazine.

"I don't think you're going to find anything." says Vala.

"Just keep looking, there has to be something." replies Daniel, fully engrossed in his books.

"Daniel, you've been at this for weeks and you haven't found a thing." says Vala.

Vala kneels up on her chair and leans over the table, "I know, why don't we take a break and go out to dinner." she says with a big teeth showing smile.

"...No." replies Daniel, he doesn't even look away from his book.

Vala gets a tired look and leans back to her side of the table, "I'm bored." she moans.

"Then go annoy someone." says Daniel.

"I am...you." replies Vala.

A few minutes of silence go by.

"Do you think I'd look good in a ...tassel crop?" asks Vala.

"Hmm.." replies Daniel, not really listening but then catches on, "..what?" he asks, lifting his head.

"Tassel crop, it's a crop top." replies Vala, she points to a picture in her magazine, "It's fashionable, apparently." she adds.

Daniel looks bemused, then leans to look over the table, "What...are you.." he says, he grabs the magazine and looks at it, "Have you been reading this the whole time?, I thought you were helping me." he says.

"I am helping." says Vala.

"How are Summer Fashions going to help me?!" asks Daniel.

Vala snatches back the magazine, "They're not for you they're for me." she says.

The phone by the door rings, to Daniels relief, he'll take anything over listening to Vala right now, he stands up and goes over to answer it.

"Dr Jackson." he says, answering the phone.

"Daniel, can you come to the briefing room and bring Vala with you." says Sam.

Daniel can tell there's something wrong by the tone of her voice, "Why, what's going on?" he asks.

"Just come up as soon as you can." says Sam.

"Sure, we'll be right there." replies Daniel.

* * *

Atlantis dialled Earth and they informed Landry about Adria and recent events, although Adria was conscious during and immediately after the creature attack, she had since lost consciousness and was taken to the infirmary, Dr Keller treated her wounds and checked her over, the news isn't good, Adria appears to have lost all of her power and is now mortal, her injuries are so severe that she may not survive for much longer.

When Daniel and Vala joined Jack, Sam and Landry in the briefing room, they informed her about Adria and her current condition, she took the news remarkably well and doesn't seem too concerned, Daniel knows her better than anyone and believes she's just putting on a brave face.

"Are you all right, Vala?" asks Sam.

"Fine." replies Vala, with a brief smile.

"You can leave for Atlantis whenever you're ready." says Landry.

"Why would I go to Atlantis?" asks Vala.

"..Adria.." replies Landry.

"She's your daughter." says Daniel.

"She's not my daughter. She...I don't know who she is." replies Vala, "Can I go now?" she asks.

Everyone in the room looks a little confused at her behaviour, "Of course." replies Landry.

"I'll talk to her." says Daniel, following Vala out of the room.

Daniel chases her down the corridor, "Vala...will you wait a second." he shouts.

"What is it Daniel?" asks Vala, stopping.

"Where are you going?" asks Daniel.

"Home" replies Vala.

As she turns to continue walking away Daniel grabs her arm, "Vala!" he says, firmly.

"What?!" she shouts.

"You need to go to Atlantis and see her." says Daniel.

"I don't want to see her." replies Vala.

"Look. I know what you're feeling. You can't forget what she did to you or who she became, the things she did and the people she hurt, but you've told me lots of times about all the things you wished you'd done, the things you wished you could say to her, well this is your chance. She's dying Vala, if you don't do it now...you may never get another chance." says Daniel.

As Vala begins to cry he wipes away her tears and holds the sides of her face lovingly.

"Go and see your little girl." says Daniel.

Vala nods, "You'll be with me?" she asks.

"Always." replies Daniel.

* * *

**Atlantis: Pegasus Galaxy**

* * *

Daniel and Vala step through the Stargate on to Atlantis, they're met by Woolsey and Teyla, personnel are still clearing up the mess from the creature attack.

"Daniel...Vala." says Woolsey, greeting them.

"Richard." replies Daniel.

Vala looks slightly drained, "Where is she." she says.

Teyla steps forward, "She is in the infirmary. We will take you to her." she says.

"Yes, this way." says Woolsey, pointing the way.

When they reach the infirmary they see Adria on a bed in the corner with Sheppard and Ronan standing by it, they stand in the doorway for a moment, Daniel holds Vala's hand for comfort and to reassure her that he is there with her, after a deep breath they walk in and are met by Dr Keller.

"Hi Jennifer." says Daniel.

Jennifer nods at Daniel then looks at Vala, "She...err Adria, is awake, she regained consciousness about half an hour ago but I don't know how long she'll be that way, normally I would ask you to keep it brief so she can get some rest...but...I don't think she has long." she says, she gently holds and rubs Vala's hand, "I'm sorry Vala." she says.

As they walk up to the bed, Woolsey asks Sheppard and Ronon to give them some room and they back off to the corner.

Vala looks at Adria in the bed and then quickly turns around, "I can't do this, Daniel." she says.

"Mother." says Adria with a weak voice.

Upon hearing her voice, Vala immediately turns around and walks around the side of the bed, "Adria." she says.

"Mother, I never thought I'd see you again." says Adria.

"I never thought I'd see you again either." replies Vala.

Adria reaches out and grabs Vala's hand, "I'm glad you came." she says.

Vala is a little taken back when Adria takes her hand, she's wanted to feel the touch of her little girl for so long, she sits down in the chair at the side of the bed and squeezes her hand very tightly, "Of course I came." she says.

Daniel know's this isn't the best time, but if he doesn't ask now then they may never know, "Adria.." he says.

Adria turns and looks at him, "Hello Daniel." she says.

"What happened to you?" asks Daniel, softly and calmly.

Adria drifts for a moment, then she begins to tell them...

* * *

**As-tium-aura: Home of the Ascended**

* * *

The Ancients live on a plane of energy within the universe, it exists outside the natural bounds of reality and is not tangible in the physical sense, created and moulded by their collective minds it has become their home, a peaceful and heavenly place – a true haven for all who achieve ascension.

The landscape is filled with lush green grass, patches of colourful flowers blossom all around, mountains of silver encompass the landscape surrounded by rivers and lakes filled and flowing with the clearest of waters, the sky is a beautiful deep blue with white fluffy clouds, smooth structures of white in many shapes and sizes form villages and a town, the sound of happiness and joy fills the air as children dance and play, it is truly a beautiful place.

Inside a building in the centre of the town, known as the Bularium, the Ancient council has convened to discuss recent events, Melia, a former member of the council before her ascension, has been brought before them, it was her who intervened and saved the Alliance from the enemy ship and certain destruction.

The council consists of 5 members, Geora, Jomet, Potim, Kiarasal and Ancala - with Geora being the head of the council.

Within the Bularium is a large room, the ceiling is 50 feet above the ground and covered with a dome of glass allowing sunlight to flood the room below, the surrounding walls covered with carvings of Ancient writings, at the furthest end of the room is a crescent shaped table narrowly separated into sections with a chair behind each section where the council members are now seated, in the very centre of the room, Melia stands on top of a slightly risen circular platform facing the council table.

The discussion between Melia and the council has been going on for some time without resolution.

"You intervened in matters that are not our concern." says Geora.

"I did." replies Melia.

"Our laws are quite clear on this matter, we must not interfere with in the affairs of others. A law of which you of all people are fully aware." argues Geora.

"Why did you take such an action against the vessel?" asks Ancala.

"We value our abilities and knowledge of all things in the universe, yet the vessel you're referring too was foreign to me. I'm certain you felt it as well, did you not?" replies Melia.

"We did." replies Jomet.

"That doesn't excuse the fact that you broke one of our highest laws." says Geora.

"With all due respect, Geora, you weren't there. You didn't feel what I felt, darkness, it's intentions were clear and it would have killed them all. I have no regret in the action I took to prevent their deaths." replies Melia.

"You understands that we can not simply...ignore this. You must be punished for your actions." says Geora.

"Our ancestors left our original home because they believed in peace, freedom and they wanted a better life for themselves and those around them, to do good. Somewhere along the way we have lost that, our ancestors would be ashamed of us. For too long we have stood by and watch as millions of innocent people die, it is time we stopped isolating ourselves from people and start using what we know to help them. Oma, Morgan, Chaya, they all believed that too, we need to follow their example. I'm not ashamed of what I've done because I know I've done good, and I will gladly take whatever punishment you feel is fitting, without protest." says Melia.

"Good."

Melia looks to her left and the council look to their right upon hearing another voice in the room.

A girl walks slowly across the room, late teens, 6 foot tall, skinny, clear white complexion, black and grey mid-back length straight hair, dressed in a ripped and torn black girdle made from leathery skin and very crudely stitched together, a long flowing and again badly ripped and torn dress dangles sweeping down on the floor as she moves, red jewelled gauntlet style arm covers with worn out strips of cloth hanging from them cover her arms, and wearing a head chain with a triangular pendant in the middle.

She stops in front of Melia and turns to look at her, they share a glaring look.

"What is the meaning of this intrusion." shouts Geora.

The girl spins around on her toes to face the council, "I am the owner of the ship..." she says, then flings her arm behind her pointing at Melia, "...that SHE destroyed." she adds.

The girl appears and sounds very, ...confident. A little bit cheeky and strangely child like.

"I see. And you are?" asks Geora.

The girl's body relaxes and she starts to pick her finger nails.

"Mmm who am I, names, names, names. It's been a long time since I had a name, they use to call me Secia. You can call me that...my name is Secia." she replies.

"You're not ascended." says Geora.

"Nope." says Secia, with a pop of her lips.

"Then how did you come to be among us?." asks Ancala.

"This place is only for those who achieve ascension." says Potim.

Secia sniggers, "You say that like it's a big achievement or something, like it's hard to get in here." she says.

"Only those who seek peace within themselves and wish to ascend to a higher plane are welcome to live among us, is it peace you seek?." asks Ancala.

"Higher plane?...you think this is a higher plane?." says Secia and she let's out a joyous laugh, "..you idiots, compared to the higher plane this is more like the basement level, and you're the rodents that squalor within it and call it home." she adds.

"Enough!. How did you get here?!" shouts Geora, in an demanding manner.

Secia's eyebrows lower and her eyes lift, "Don't shout at me...I don't like it when people shout at me." she says, firmly and softly in a sudden change of demeanour.

"What do you want?" asks Melia.

"Justice." replies Secia, turning around to face Melia, "You destroyed my ship, you're the first to do so." she adds.

"It was going to kill innocent people." replies Melia.

"Yeah...that's what it was for." says Secia, "...duh!" she adds.

"I couldn't let you do that. You're not welcome here, I suggest you return to wherever you came from." says Melia.

Secia steps on to the platform where Melia is standing, she grabs Melia's gown by the collar and pulls her in close, "Don't tell me what to do." she says.

Geora slams his palms down heavily on to the table in front of him as he stands from his chair, "Stop this, leave at once." he shouts.

This sends Secia in to a rage, she releases Melia and turns around, "Stop shouting at me!" she screams very loudly and sounds extremely angry, the glass dome covering the ceiling of the Bularium cracks and breaks, it implodes sending millions of glass shards plummeting to the floor.

* * *

A few minutes later, Melia and the council emerge picking themselves up off the floor with pieces of glass falling off them and tiny cuts all over their hands and faces, looking at each other in shock and dismay.

"Blood. How is this possible." says Geora.

The council looks at Secia, whose standing in the room looking quite smug, they outstretch their arms in an attempt to use their powers to expel her, apart from a small burst of light from their hands, it appears they no longer have their abilities, they look to the skies when they hear the sound of thunder, the sky and clouds above slowly darken.

"What have you done to us?" asks Kiarasal.

Secia walks across the shards of broken glass and stands by the council members, "Nothing you don't deserve." she says.

"Please, leave this place and we will interfere no more. You have our word." says Geora.

"I wish it was that simple. Unfortunately I can't have you...flashing around and destroying my ships. I was going to kill you all, then I had a better idea. You see, I'm in need of something and it just so happens that your...abilities..are perfect for it." replies Secia.

"For what?" asks Geora.

Secia steps up to Geora and strokes the side of his head, "An army." she says.

As she takes a step back with a smile and her hand slides off his head, his hair and head start to turn black, like ink swirling through water the blackness expands and gradually covers his entire body, the other members of the council take a step back away from him.

Geora gasps looking at his hands as they blacken, his breathing becomes wincing, "H-Help me..", then he hunches up and thick black smoke emanates out from his body completely engulfing him, he screams in pain and then the tone of his screams get deeper and deeper until it sounds more like a rabid dog growling, the smoke begins to clear revealing a darkened mass of skin and bone, he rises from the floor completely transformed in to a grotesque creature.

Secia steps up to the hovering creature and reaches out to stroke its face, the creature allows her to touch it, then she turns her head to face the other council members, "Isn't he beautiful." she says.

Disgusted and in shock at what she's just witnessed, Melia runs and turns in to a ball of light as she charges towards Secia while she has her back turned, but Secia senses her approach and quickly turns around and deflects Melia's attack sending her in her light form flying through the air and out of the Bularium, as this occurred, more Ancients enter the building after hearing the commotion and horrific screams within and attempt to stop Secia.

Outside, in the fields of Astiumaura, Melia lands in a small lake and turns back in to her physical form, after dragging herself out of the water and on to the lake side she stands and turns to see the town gradually turning a deep black as the darkness spreads from the Bularium, as it covers the buildings they turn in to ruins, the ground grass and flowers turn to rubble and dirt and the ascended who are unlucky enough to be in its path are engulfed in smoke and transformed in to creatures, and the sky continues to darken and roar with thunder.

Hundreds and then thousands of Ancients in their light energy forms attempt unsuccessfully to penetrate the darkness and stop Secia.

Standing on the side of the lake, as countless balls of energy whiz passed overhead, Melia looks disheartened and unsure what to do, in all her time being an ascended being and having incredible powers and abilities, she's never felt so helpless as she watches everything she and her people hold dear being taken from them in such a violent manner, as the darkness approaches she transforms in to energy once more and heads in the opposite direction as quickly as she can to outrun it.

Melia eventually gets to a building at the very edge of Astiumaura and zips through the wall, the Turolaca is the Ancients version of a prison, not only designed to hold people in, but prevent them from using their ascended abilities, it houses those deemed too dangerous to roam freely, she steps up to the one and only prisoner they have.

Adria has been their prisoner for over a year, in that time they've made significant progress in helping her to understand what she was doing was wrong and that she can't force her will on to people, it took a long time but she eventually started to see the correct path.

Adria and Melia stand face to face for a few brief moments, Melia isn't sure she's ready to be let free, but she doesn't have a choice and she can't just leave her their to die or be turned, she waves her hand lowering the barrier that keeps Adria contained.

"Come with me." says Melia.

Adria follows Melia outside cautiously, she's unsure why she's being let free.

"What's happening?" asks Adria, then as she gets outside she sees the horrific sight, "...what is that?!" she asks in shock.

"Come on, hurry." shouts Melia.

They're about to run off when they see the figure of Secia appearing at the top of a hill behind them.

"Who's that?" asks Adria, still very confused.

Melia grabs her hand and transfers some of what little energy she has left in to Adria, then she hands her a small crystal, "Take this, get it to Earth." she says in a hurry.

Adria shakes her head, "No, I'm not allowed to leave...I don't have my power." she says.

"You have mine. It should be enough to get you to Earth." replies Melia, "You can do this, Adria." she adds.

Secia turns to one of her newly created creatures at her side, "Fetch" she says, and it charges through the air towards them.

"GO!" shouts Melia, pushing Adria away.

Adria is hesitant, but turns and runs, while still running she looks back over her shoulder and sees Melia being attacked by the creature and then hit by the darkness, the creature then sees Adria and begins to chase her.

Adria concentrates really hard, trying to access the power Melia gave her, she's been in prison and without her power for so long it's taking a while for her to regain control, she eventually manages it and transforms in to energy and forms a passage to Earth, however, the creatures gains on her and enters the passage with her, they get in to a short fight between plane and the dark energy coming from the creature causes the passage to destabilise and falls short of Earth, but she manages to regain some control and redirects it to Atlantis.

* * *

"That's when I lost consciousness and the next thing I know I woke up in here...and saw you, Mother." says Adria.

It's true that Vala will never forget what Adria had done to millions of people in the name of the Ori, but after hearing her story and seeing her laying helplessly on the bed she puts the past out of her mind, this is her little girl and despite everything, like any parent, she never stopped loving her child.

"It's okay baby, you're safe now." says Vala.

"I'm sorry Mother." says Adria.

"No I'm sorry, I should have tried harder. I never should have let them take you." replies Vala, stroking Adria's hair and beginning to cry.

Adria begins to cry, "Forgive me. Can you forgive me." she says.

"I forg..." Vala starts to say.

Then Adria goes in to convulsions, Vala sweeps back out of the way and Daniel rushes to stand beside her as Dr Keller and a nurse run over, "Hold her down." she shouts, moments later she stops convulsing and the monitors begin to beep.

"She's arresting, get the cart." shouts Keller, she starts chest compressions, "1...2...3...4...5...6...".

"Nothing" says the nurse.

"What's happening...Adria!" shouts Vala, with understandable concern.

"10cc of PF. Paddles..." says Keller, grabbing the paddles, "Clear!" she shouts and initiates the shock.

"Charge to 300" says Keller.

"Charging 300" replies the nurse.

"Clear!" shouts Keller, initiating another shock, she replaces the paddles and checks for a heart beat and pulse.

Dr Keller slowly turns around, Vala stares back at her waiting to hear good news, "I'm...I'm sorry theres..."

She doesn't need to finish, they all know Adria has gone, it takes a few moments before the news kicks in to Vala.

"Noooo." screams Vala, running back to the bed and wrapping her arms around Adria.

Daniel goes over and tries to get Vala away but she clings on to Adria and the bed sheets, "She's gone Vala, she's gone." he says.

Vala starts crying and wailing, clinging on to the bed as Daniel tries hard to pull her away, "Adria." cries Vala over and over.

Eventually, with his arms around her waist and lifting her in to the air, Daniel manages to tear her away, "I'm sorry Vala, I'm so sorry Vala." he says, even he is overcome with emotion, Vala completely breaks down in tears and drops to the floor on her knees with Daniel.


	5. Desperate Measures

**Still on Atlantis**

* * *

It's been a couple of hours since Adria's sad passing, Daniel has done his best to console Vala who was in a right state, she does seem to have calmed down a little but she's deeply upset at the loss of her daughter and even deeper in regret that she never got to tell her that she forgave her for all the bad thing's she'd done in the past, now she will never get a chance to tell her.

After hearing Adria's story, Woolsey contacted the SGC and informed them immediately of the situation, they now know that the Ancients aren't going to help them, and not from their own choosing, but they're now part of the threat, at least they have intel on what could be coming for them and they now have a name for their enemy, Secia – although her origin and motives still remains a mystery.

Dr McKay and Zelenka have been down in their lab for several hours conducting tests and analysis on the small crystal Adria had in her possession, the crystal is clearly of Ancient design and appears to be a data crystal containing a massive amount of information, after sifting through it all they believe they've finally figured it out.

Everyone, including Daniel and Vala have gathered in the Atlantis meeting room to hear what they've found.

"So what information does it contain, Dr McKay?." asks Woolsey.

"Nothing, err..at least nothing that's useful to us." replies McKay.

"It does contain information but it is..." Zelenka starts to say, immediately interrupted by McKay.

"It's a program." says McKay, "..a computer program." he adds.

"I was telling me." says Zelenka.

"What?!" snaps McKay.

"About the information." replies Zelenka.

"Yes, but you were taking too long...just...shut up." replies McKay, to Zelenka's annoyance.

"A program for what?" asks Woolsey.

"Well we don't know." replies McKay.

"Can't you just play it and see." asks Sheppard.

"Play it?, really. It's not an MP3 file." says McKay.

"All right...run it, execute it..whatever." replies Sheppard, "Fire it up and see what it does." he adds.

"It's not that simple." says Zelenka.

"This is a master crystal, like we have here in the Atlantis systems. The dial computer, deep space sensors, transporters, communications, even the Jumpers have them. They're keyed to their specific device and each one is unique, operating whichever device it's keyed too." explains McKay.

"OK...so what does this crystal operate?." asks Woolsey.

"Well nothing here on Atlantis...but...each master crystal has a device identification code embedded within the code. Using that code we were able to run a search through the database and luckily for us we were able to identify the device it operates." says Zelenka.

"Great, what is it?" asks Sheppard.

"We don't know what it is, but we know where the device is. It's on Earth, in the Ancient outpost in Antarctica." replies McKay, "We need to go there...I need to go there." he adds.

"We should probably return to the SGC anyway, you can come back with us and head to Antarctica from there." says Daniel.

"Very well. Colonel Sheppard, your team is still scheduled for evacuation site re-con, I need you here to continue doing that for the time being. Dr McKay, get whatever you need and head back to Earth with Daniel and Vala." says Woolsey.

* * *

**Stargate Command**

* * *

While recent events were unfolding on Atlantis, the SGC has been gradually overrun with groups of refugees coming through the Stargate from many planets belonging to their allies, it seems Secia's ships have now entered the region and begun systematically attacking every world they come across, as a result many of the survivors have fled to the safety of their allies including Earth.

General Landry has been having a difficult time finding comfortable places on base for them to stay until he can find a safe place to send them, a small number of Jaffa and Earth ships have been dispatch to intercept Secia's ships and gather as much intel as they can, however, they've been ordered not to engage the enemy at this time, and besides, if the ships are as powerful as they believe they are then getting in to a fire fight would prove pointless and they can't afford to lose valuable resources this early in the game.

Landry is in the gate room trying to bring order to the chaos and confusion.

"People, people..." he says, "...Quiet!" he shouts.

The room goes silent and everyone turns to face him.

"Thank God. Now, these men and women behind me are going to show you to where you'll be staying for the duration of your..hopefully brief..visit. You all know that you can't leave the base and space is limited so a lot of you are going to have to share rooms, it's not..." says Landry, then the room erupts with everyone shouting and complaining.

"People please...will you just...ah to hell with it." says Landry, then he turns rubbing his forehead from the stress and walks away, he stops and turns when he feels a tugging on his shirt.

He turns to see a member of the Tulla, a small Asgardian looking race but they have black coloured skin and are friendly and peaceful, SG-1 rescued a group of them several months ago while searching for the Ancient ship The Lantis, which they found hidden in a large cavern here on Earth.

"Yes?" asks Landry, in an exhausted tone.

Just then, Sam walks in to the gate room, circling round the refugees, "General, the IOA are on the phone for you Sir." she says, "Oh hello." she adds, looking at the Tulla.

"Hello, I am Toy." he says.

"Toy?" questions Sam.

"Yes. I can not remain here." says Toy.

"We only have limited space, but if you talk to these people they'll show you to a room with the other refugees." says Landry.

"I am not a refugee." replies Toy.

"Then why are you here?" asks Sam.

"Well, it's rather embarrassing. I appear to have dialled the wrong address." says Toy, "However, if you allow me to use your dialling device I'm certain I can use it to get home." he adds.

Landry rolls his eyes and walks off, Sam stands awkwardly for a moment, "I'm err...we'll talk later." she says and then follows Landry out.

"So I'll just..wait here then." says Toy, to himself.

As Landry and Sam leave the gate room, the Stargate activates, "Off world gate activation." announces Walter of the speakers, several armed soldiers run through the crowd and take up position at the foot of the gate ramp, the gate activates and after a few moments Walter received an IDC, "It's Atlantis, security teams stand down." he announces and the proceeds to open the IRIS.

Daniel, Vala and McKay step through the event horizon and head down the ramp, on their way towards the left entryway, McKay constantly looks over his shoulder with curiosity after spotting Toy in the crown of refugees.

"Is that a..." says McKay.

"..Asgard?" says Daniel.

"Yeah." says McKay.

"No." replies Daniel.

"Really?, the resemblance is uncanny...well apart from it's a different colour." says McKay.

* * *

**Control room**

* * *

When Daniel and Vala returned from Atlantis they, along with McKay, informed Landry and their fellow team members of what had happened, the other members of SG-1 naturally expressed their condolences to Vala and offered her comfort in any way they can.

It was only a short time ago that they were a feeling a lot more confident and calm about the situation with their enemy, believing that the Ancients would now have their backs when the fight began, unfortunately that appears to no longer be the case, Secia has transformed them in to her own private army which leaves Earth and their allies pretty much back at square-one with little or no viable defence against her attack.

After informing the President and the IOA of the current situation, it has been decided that they no longer have a choice, they must put their original and only backup plan in to action.

General Landry is in the control room.

"Dial P2S-4C3, Walter." he orders.

"Yes Sir." replies Walter.

The Stargate, with the IRIS closed, connects and successfully activates, Landry stands by the communications console looking at a live video feed from a MALP, the screen is all fuzzy for several seconds and then clears up to show just a blank grey wall.

"Colonel Mitchell, this is Landry, come in." he says over the radio.

A few moments later, Mitchell comes in to view of the camera.

"General, good to hear your voice Sir." replies Mitchell.

"How are things progressing there?" asks Landry.

"We finished evacuating the last of the Langarans to the Beta Site a couple of hours ago, Dr Lee is running final simulations and other stuff I don't really understand and Ambassador Ovirda still isn't happy that we've taken over his facility Sir." replies Mitchell.

"He does realise what's at stake here, doesn't he?" asks Landry.

"Yes Sir, I think he's just a little upset that he's not calling the shots around here." replies Mitchell.

Landry laughs lightly then hunches towards the screen in a serious pose, "Listen, things aren't going the way we hope they would here. I was hoping we wouldn't have to do this, what with the obvious risks involved, but the President has ordered me to inform you that we're pushing ahead. You're to proceed immediately with your mission, operation Sundial is a go." he says.

Mitchell lowers his head briefly sighing , he knows what this mission involves and that it could all go badly wrong, he also knows that this is a vital mission and could mean the difference between victory or failure for all concerned. "Yes Sir." he replies.

"Good luck, Colonel." says Landry.

"Thank you Sir. Could you tell my team that I...tell them I'll see them soon." replies Mitchell.

"Will do...and Son...Godspeed." says Landry, genuinely heartfelt.

The Stargate shuts down and the video feed turns off.

* * *

**Briefing room**

* * *

Landry returned to the briefing room from the control room after sending Mitchell on his secret mission, he and SG-1 are all sitting around the table discussing where to go from here.

"So McKay, what is this device you want to see?." asks Sam.

"I don't know what it is yet, it was catalogued by the initial excavation team, it was recorded as item AOA-00148...here's a photograph." says McKay, he brings up a database entry of the device on his tablet and shows it to Sam.

"This was in the Ancient Outpost?" asks Sam.

"Yes, unfortunately this particular device is integrated in to the outpost itself, they couldn't remove it and take it to Area 51 with the others, which means I need to go to the outpost if I want to try to figure this thing out." replies McKay.

Sam nods, "I'll come with you." she says, she glances over to Jack who looks a little disapproving.

"Great, let's go. Oh err..if that's all right with you General?" says McKay, looking for Landry's approval.

"Yes..go." replies Landry.

"Right." says McKay, he and Sam stand up ready to head out, "..I'll just err..grab a sandwich or something before we leave. I'll meet you top-side, outside..on the err...yeah." he mutters.

Sam walks towards the door and is met part way by Jack, he's worried for her and the baby, the Antarctic is freezing and it's in the middle of nowhere with very little protection in the event of an attack, the IOA has ordered him to continue questioning Linda so he's unable to leave the base and can't go with her.

"Are you sure you want to go out there?" asks Jack.

"We have to do something, this..whatever it is could help us. As things stand, I'm no safer here than I am there, and besides, McKay is really smart but I don't trust him to do this by himself." replies Sam.

Jack rubs Sam's small baby bump, "Just promise me you'll be careful, and hurry back. I love you." he says.

Sam kisses Jack, "Love you. Don't worry...seriously, don't worry." she says and she heads out of the briefing room.

* * *

**P2S-4C3: Langara**

* * *

Mitchell and a team of marines and engineers are currently inside the Langaran Naquadria power station making final preparations for their plan, for two weeks they've been temporarily relocating the Langaran's to the Beta site because they require that use of the Langaran Stargate, however, the instability of the Naquadria at the planets core which the power plant taps in to means there's a high chance the planet could be destroyed when they put their plan in motion.

Dr Lee is standing by the dialling and power modulation device, he's just completed his preliminary tests and is ready to go ahead, "That's it I'm ready." he says.

Mitchell moves to stand in front of the Stargate and asks everyone to gather around.

"All right. I know you've all been working flat out with hardly any rest the last couple of weeks, it's not going to get any easier. We've received our final orders from Stargate Command, we're to proceed with the mission as planned, so in a moment Dr Lee is going to activate this Stargate, we don't know if it'll work and even if it does we don't know how long it'll stay active for. So here's what we're gunna do, as soon as that gate opens I want you to grab all the equipment you need and starting with the large crates we're gunna haul arse through that Stargate. Once we reach our desired destination you need to quickly make your way to your designated areas and get to work, there's no time to stop and look around. Clear?." says Mitchell.

Everyone nods in acknowledgement and understanding, Mitchell walks over and stands by Dr Lee.

"Dr Lee, make it so." says Mitchell, jokingly referencing Star Trek.

"Here goes." replies Dr Lee.

He slowly turns the many power dials spread over the console in front of him, the energy output from the core gradually increases, as it does the Stargate starts to hum from the high amount of power being slowly fed in to it.

"That's it, power levels are maxed out." says Dr Lee.

"Activate the gate." says Mitchell, "...get ready." he shouts to everyone waiting behind him.

As each chevron on the Stargate lights up, one after the other, the electrical hum from the gate gets louder and louder, "...Chevron 7 locked..." shouts Dr Lee, the power level indicators on the large units that line the walls behind them begin to pop and break, "..chevron 8 locked.." shouts Dr Lee.

"Chevron 9 locked." shouts Dr Lee, then after a few seconds the Stargate activates with a large blue swoosh and a stable vortex forms, power indicators continue to randomly pop.

"All right, move out...move, move, move." shouts Mitchell.

All the marines and engineers start running towards the Stargate with boxes of equipment, the very large crates are pushed through first, followed closely behind by the others.

"Power levels are critical." shouts Dr Lee.

The building begins to shake violently and cracks form on the walls, the floor breaks open sending steaming hot jets of steam in to the room, the Stargate begins to flicker and destabilise.

Mitchell grabs and pulls Dr Lee away from the console and runs pushing him towards the gate, they run and make it through the event horizon moments before the entire building collapses in on itself and the gate is swallowed in to the ground, a chain reaction causes the veins of Naquadria that line the planet to destabilise and the resulting reaction blows the planet of Langara to pieces.


	6. Flash-Bang

**Stargate Command**

* * *

SG-1, with the exception of Sam and Mitchell, are in the briefing room at the SGC with General Landry and Linda, they intend to question her and hopefully get some information from her that will help them understand what they're up against and find a way to defend themselves against it.

Landry is sitting in his chair at the front of the table, SG-1 are sitting along the left side while Linda sits by herself at the opposite side of the table with two security officers directly behind her, Vala is sitting by the far end of the table and turned to the side in her seat facing away from everyone, her mind is on other things at the moment.

"Just so we're clear, you're here because Colonel O'Neill believes you have information that may be of value to us in our current situation. If you refuse to cooperate I'll have you sent back to area 51 without hesitation..am I clear?" says Landry.

Linda remains silent but nods, acknowledging that she understands.

"Colonel." says Landry, lightly waving his hand between Jack and Linda, signalling to Jack to proceed with the questioning.

"Riiight. So...what do you know?" asks Jack.

"About what?" replies Linda.

"Anything...this Siesta person." says Jack.

"Secia." whispers Daniel, leaning sideways towards Jack.

"What?!" asks Jack.

"Her name is Secia." replies Daniel.

"Yeah, whatever!. What do you know about her?" asks Jack.

Linda shrugs, "Nothing." she says.

"Nothing?" asks Jack.

"Nothing." replies Linda.

Jack lets out a breath of frustration, "All right, you mentioned Omitus back at the facility, what is that?" he asks.

"I don't know." replies Linda.

"You don't know?!" asks Jack.

"No." replies Linda.

"Then what the hell do you know?!." shouts Jack, getting increasingly frustrated, "I'm sorry General, this is a waste of time." he says.

"Okay, Sergeant, take her back to the holding room. I'll have her transported back to Area 51." says Landry.

"All right, all right." shouts Linda, as the guards behind her approach, "I'll tell you what I know." she says.

Landry signals the guards to back away.

"Start talking." says Jack.

"Back at the facility when the guards were taking me back to the cell, I saw some people working in a lab and I saw an image on the projection screen." says Linda, she points to a messy stack of books and photo's that Daniel has on the table in front of him, "The image was of those symbols." she adds.

Daniel pulls out the photo taken of the stone monument on P3X-474, the stone is engraved with symbols he's been unable to decipher, "These symbols?" he asks, sliding the photo over the table.

"When I saw them I got a flash, memories of something, something from Ba'als past." says Linda.

"Ba'als past?, you mean your past." says Jack.

"I have Ba'als genetic memories but these ones just came out of nowhere, flashed in front of my eyes. It was like something he wanted to forget and kept locked away, the emotions were intense, he was scared of it, he feared it." replies Linda.

"Scared of what?" asks Daniel, "Of whatever these symbols mean?" he adds.

"I can't tell you what they mean but when I saw them the word Omitus just came in to my head, I don't know what that means either." replies Linda.

"What were these memories that...flashed in front of you?" asks Jack.

"Like I said, what I saw was in flashes, but I saw a large fleet of Goa'uld mother ships of old design, they were surrounding a planet and bombarding it with heavy weapons fire from above, then I saw several Goa'uld system lords with hundreds of Jaffa warriors running through caves on the surface and firing their weapons as if they were holding or forcing something back, then the system lords were gathered around something, I didn't see what it was, it could have been a person, another system lord maybe, but it was speaking a strange language and chanting Omitus over and over, then I saw lots of blood they must have killed whatever it was, then they were stood near the opening of the cave and sealing it off." explains Linda.

"So...you saw something that happened hundreds or thousands of years ago?. I mean you said the ships were of old design so I'm assuming it happened a very long time ago." asks Daniel.

"Yes. I don't think it was actually Ba'als memory, I don't think he was physically there when this happened." replies Linda.

"Well that makes sense, the Goa'uld have genetic memory so it was probably passed to him." says Daniel.

"Omitus was a system lord?" asks Jack.

"I don't think so no. I've never heard of anything called Omitus, the word itself means nothing, I haven't been able to find any reference to it at all...in any known language." replies Daniel.

"Reminds me of Xaoeruntri." says Linda.

"The what?" asks Jack.

Teal'cs eyebrows lift, "That is merely a story." he says.

Daniel glances back and forth between Teal'c and Linda, "What err...what's the story, I'd like to hear it." he says.

"It is said that many thousands of years ago three symbiotes known to the Goa'uld as the Xaoeruntri were born with a genetic anomaly, they were joined together as one, I believe you call them Siamese. Like other Goa'uld before them, when the symbiotes matured they took a host and wished to take their place among the system lords, however, the other system lords did not look kindly upon them, they saw them as freaks and instead of welcoming them in to their ranks they were shunned and eventually banished.

Nothing more was seen or heard of them for many hundreds of years, until one day they showed themselves once again, they brought with them a number of ships that were far more advanced than anything the Goa'uld had at that time, they offered to share them with the others if they allowed the Xaoeruntri in to the rank of system lord.

The others agreed and arranged a meeting with them, but it was a deception, instead of accepting the Xaoeruntri in to their ranks they imprisoned them and stole their ships and technology, it is said that the Goa'uld's rise to power and dominance in this galaxy was a direct result of the technology they obtained from the Xaoeruntri." explains Teal'c.

"Oook. But what does that have to do with the Omitus thing?" asks Jack.

"The story also said that the Xaoeruntri were imprisoned in the Orac caves." replies Linda.

"It is but a story, O'Neill. There is no evidence that those events actually occurred." says Teal'c.

Vala slowly turns in her seat, "Orac caves." she says.

"What did you say, Vala?" asks Daniel.

"She said Orac caves. I don't know about the caves but Orac exists, it's the name of a planet." replies Vala.

"I have not heard of such a world." says Teal'c.

"Back in my...trading days, I spent some time on a world called Gurag, the people on that world had only been there for a few hundred years, they fled their home world after a disaster of some kind made the land toxic, but their original home world was called Orac." says Vala.

"And you think this Omitus or Xaoeruntri if real could be there?" asks Jack.

Vala shrugs with no idea.

"Maybe it's worth checking out." says Daniel.

Jack looks at Landry for an opinion, "It's all we've got, Colonel." says Landry, "Do you know the address to this planet?" he asks, looking at Vala.

"I think I can remember it." replies Vala.

"Great. Let me know if you find anything." says Linda.

"We won't need too, you're coming with us." says Jack.

"I am?." asks Linda, looking a little shocked and nervous.

"Oh yeah!" replies Jack, "General, request permission to go take a look at..Orac." he adds.

"By all means, be ready to leave within the hour." replies Landry.

* * *

**Several billion light-years from Earth**

* * *

The dark room was suddenly flooded with the shimmering blue light of the Stargate vortex, moments later, Engineers and Marines with boxes and crates are forced through the event horizon with slightly more inertia than when they entered on the other side, as more come through and knock in to those ahead of them they quickly move out of the way to give room for those following, lastly Dr Lee and Mitchell come through the gate running, with Mitchell pushing Dr Lee from behind and as they enter the room the gate deactivates.

One of the engineers quickly makes his way to the console at the far end of the room and manages to get power and turn on the soft glowing lights.

"Well that wasn't good, that wasn't good at all." says Dr Lee.

"You think Langara's gone?." asks Mitchell.

"That would be my guess yes." replies Dr Lee.

Mitchell stands in the middle of the room as the engineers and marines push boxes around and begin unloading their gear, "All right people, you know where you need to be and what you need to do, so get to work...we're on a timetable here. We've got 48 hours to get this thing operational." he says.

Everyone starts making their way out and through the corridors pushing a dragging crates and boxes behind them.

Dr Lee takes a quick look around, "So this is the Destiny huh." he says.

"Yep." replies Mitchell.

"Just so you know, I've been here before. Well..I was in someone else's body when they used the ancient communication stones, I've never seen it with my own eyes. It...it really is quite beautiful." says Dr Lee.

Mitchell rolls his eyes and goes over to him, "Yeah it's real nice. Plenty of time to look at it when we're finished." he says, pushing Dr Lee towards the door.

"Huh?, oh right." says Dr Lee.

"Get to the bridge and do whatever it is you're here to do, I'll be back soon." says Mitchell.

Mitchell heads through the long winding corridors of the ship and makes his way to the stasis rooms, when he enters the first room he sees two engineers kneeling by the pods with their tablet computers plugged in to ports beneath them.

"Report." says Mitchell.

"There seems to be a problem with the secondary console and pod consoles, they've frozen and won't allow us to open the pods so we're going to have to do this manually one by one." says Kevin Grover, head engineer.

"How long?" asks Mitchell.

Kevin shakes his head, "Um...15 minutes per pod..maybe, it's going to take time." he says.

"All right. Work as quickly as you can, we need to get them out or this whole mission is a bust." orders Mitchell.

"Yes Sir." replies Kevin.

As Mitchell is leaving the stasis room he hears a call on his radio, "Colonel, come in." says Major Harris.

"This is Mitchell." he replies.

"Sir, you better get down to the engine room, we've got a problem." replies Major Harris.

"On my way." replies Mitchell.

Mitchell hurries through the corridors heading for the engine room, when he approaches he sees several engineers and two marines standing by the door with a large crate in the middle of the corridor.

He briefly waves his hands out to his sides in disbelief that they're all just standing there, "What's going on, why aren't you in there?" he asks.

"We can't get in, doors jammed shut." replies Harris.

Mitchell walks over and pushes the button next to the large door, he tries a few times and it doesn't open, "I'll see if Dr Lee can..." he starts to say.

"We already tried Sir, Dr Lee says most of the consoles are locked out." replies Harris.

Mitchell stands and thinks for a second, "All right, push this crate back and stand back there." he orders, opening the pockets of his vest.

"Sir?" asks Harris with curiosity.

"We'll use C4, blast it open." replies Mitchell, sticking a block of C4 to the middle of the door.

"Sir, are you..are you sure that's a good idea?" asks Harris.

"No. But like I said before, we're on a schedule and we need to get this thing fitted." says Mitchell, placing the detonator in the C4, "Get back" he adds, moving back with the others.

They all move slightly around the corner from the door and Mitchell detonates the C4, a fireball followed by a lot of metal debris and a thick plume of smoke shoots down the corridor passed them, when it clears they move around, the engine room door has been completely blown to pieces and the surrounding walls are covered in scorch marks.

"Okay, doors open. Get to work." orders Mitchell.

"Sir, where are you going?." asks Harris, seeing Mitchell walk away.

"To the bridge." replies Mitchell.


	7. Sisters of death

**Destiny**

* * *

Mitchell and his team of engineers and marines have been on board Destiny for the last few hours trying to access the ships systems and wake the crew from their stasis pods, most of the control consoles are either non-functioning or have some how been locked out, this has resulted in a big delay and prevented them from getting any work done and fulfilling their mission.

Thankfully, Kevin, the head engineer has managed to wake some of the crew and get them out of their pods, it's slow going but he should have the entire crew out in within the next few hours. Dr Rush and Colonel Young were among the first to be released and although they're clearly and understandably a little weak and disorientated, they've joined Mitchell and Dr Lee on the bridge.

Mitchell has just finished briefing them on the situation they're facing back home.

"So what do you want from us?" asks Young, sitting in the captains chair slouched over trying to get his bearings.

"The threat I just told you about is real and extremely serious, we've enlisted the help of all our allies and they've gathered all the ships and weapons they can, but it's not enough, we're going to need more ships and more fire-power." replies Mitchell.

Colonel Young understands but Mitchell still didn't explain why he's there, "So...what do you want from us?" he asks, again.

"Destiny is a powerful ship, we're here to bring it back to the Milky Way." replies Mitchell.

Dr Rush starts to laugh, "You are joking of course?" he asks.

"I'm not laughing." replies Mitchell.

Rush shakes his head and stands from his chair, "You're telling me you were sent here to bring Destiny back to Earth?!...Colonel, do you know where we are?" he asks.

"No." replies Mitchell, "Should I?" he adds.

"No, because even we don't have any idea where we are. But what we do know is that his ship is billions of light years from Earth, even if we fly the ship in FTL non-stop, which isn't possible, it would take us thousands of years to reach Earth. The mere fact that someone ordered you to come here with this ridiculous idea is laughable, it's ridiculous, it can't be done. I'm sorry Colonel but you've wasted your time, and now – sadly, you're stuck here like the rest of us." says Rush.

Mitchell steps up to Rush, "We know how far away you are, and we know that FTL isn't fast enough to get the ship back anytime soon, that's why we came prepared." he says, assertively.

"Prepared, in what way?." replies Rush.

"We brought some fancy toys with us. A few months ago we discovered a Furling ship crashed on the surface of a planet in Pegasus, their ships are the fastest we've ever seen, they're able to travel between galaxies in a matter of minutes, we salvaged the engines from the crashed ship and brought them with us. " says Mitchell.

"You want to retrofit them to Destiny, upgrading our own engines." says Rush.

"Precisely." replies Mitchell.

"Well it'll take some doing, it won't be a matter of just plugging it in, they'll be incompatibility between technologies. You're going to need my help, I better get down there." replies Rush, he looks at Young for approval.

"Yes, go." says Young.

"Hold on." shouts Mitchell, he takes a tablet computer from Dr Lee and hands it to Rush, "You also need to take a look at that, figure out how to get it done." he says.

Rush looks at the data on the tablet and his mouth opens in disbelief, "Are you insane!." he says, "There's a slim chance we could get Destiny back, but the..." he adds, interrupted by Mitchell.

"Just...get...it...done." says Mitchell.

"Do as he says, Rush." orders Young.

Rush reluctantly shuts up and then heads out to go to the engine room.

"Scientists." says Mitchell with displeasure, "Oh..no offence Doc." he says to Dr Lee after glancing over and seeing him look back at him.

Colonel Young gets out of his chair and stands by Mitchell, "You say you've been here for 4-5 hours?" he asks.

"Yeah." replies Mitchell.

"Have you seen anyone else on the ship, besides us?" asks Young.

"You mean Eli?" says Mitchell.

Young nods, "Yeah." he says.

"Sorry Colonel, no sign of him. We checked the ship when we were here a few months ago and he wasn't here then neither." replies Mitchell.

"A few months ago?" asks Young with confusion.

Mitchell inhales a deep breath and exhales, "Long story. Walk with me and I'll tell you all about it." he says.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy: Planet known as Orac**

* * *

After questioning Linda at the SGC and discovering a possible lead that may provide vital information on their new enemy and a possibility of discovering something that could help them fight back, SG-1 got their gear together and decided to head for Orac.

Vala was the only one who believed she knew the location of this world and after spending some time going through the gate database she believes she's identified the address, Daniel, Jack, Teal'c, Vala and Linda went through the gate a few hours ago, the gate was situated within a large open field, they can see broken and decaying wooden houses in the area, it has wooded areas with large trees but like the grass beneath their feet it appears most are dead and there's no immediately apparent wildlife in the area, the people Vala met during her trading days on Gurag did mention that they left Orac because the land had become toxic, that is clearly reflected in what they see around them.

They saw some mountain ranges off in the distance and as they're in search of caves, this will most likely be where they'll find them, they've been heading towards them for some time, Jack and Teal'c lead the way with Linda, Daniel and Vala are walking together closely behind them.

"Here let me take that." says Daniel, moving behind Vala and taking her backpack off.

"I can carry it, you don't have to do that." says Vala.

Daniel throws the backpack over his shoulder, "It's okay." he says, "I got it." he adds.

"I'm fine. You don't have to baby me, Daniel." says Vala.

"I'm not babying you...I'm just...you look tired." replies Daniel.

"Like you care." says Vala under her breath.

Daniel reaches out and stops her, pulling on her arm to turn her to face him, "What?!. You don't think I care?." he says.

Vala shakes her head, she's very confused right now with everything that's going on, "No, I'm..I'm sorry I didn't mean..."

"Daniel, Vala...what's the hold up?." shouts Jack, standing a distance ahead of them and turning around to see that they've stopped walking.

"Just keep going, we'll catch up in a minute." shouts Daniel.

"All right. Hurry up, it'll be dark soon." replies Jack, he continues walking with Teal'c and Linda.

Daniel looks back at Vala, "I care about you, Vala, of course I care about you. I've never lost a child so I can't even begin to imagine what you're going through right now, but I am here for you and I do care about you, you mean a lot to me." he says.

Vala stands confused with her emotions and doesn't say anything, Daniel steps closer to her, placing his hands on her arms he leans towards her touching her forehead with his own.

"Everything that's going on and everything that's happened, it's made me realise what's important and that life is short, we all have things we want to do and want to say and I realise we can't afford to hold back anymore." says Daniel.

"Important?" asks Vala.

"Yes. You are important...to me." says Daniel, brushing the hair off the side of her face, "I love you, Vala. I have for a long time but I could never bring myself to actually say it. Okay you're incredibly annoying, never do as you're told and you're always making fun of me...but I love you." he says.

Vala lightly smiles and giggles a bit, "I enjoy annoying you." she says, then she moves in and they stand hugging each other for a minute.

"Oh, we should get moving." says Vala.

"Yeah we should. All right, come on." says Daniel, they head off walking to catch up to the others.

* * *

When they finally catch up to the others, they join them standing under what looks like an archway embedded in the side of the mountain, in the archway is a large solid stone wall with a badly worn away carving in the middle of it, they can't tell what it was, possibly a warning to stay away.

"So is this it?" asks Jack.

"I think so." replies Daniel, having a really good look at the wall.

"Well can you open it?" asks Jack.

"I don't think so." replies Daniel.

"You don't think so?" asks Jack.

"No." replies Daniel, he looks at Jack and sees that he's fishing for a positive answer here, "Um, well if these are the caves that Linda saw in her flashbacks then it was sealed shut. Usually when you seal something off to keep something inside you don't put a door handle on it to make it easy to open." says Daniel, a little sarcasm in his voice.

Jack stands tongue-in-cheek staring at Daniel for a moment, "C4 it is then." he replies, removing two blocks from his vest and sticking them to the wall.

"Erm Jack I'm not sure that we should be..." says Daniel, he's then grabbed on the shoulder and pulled out of the archway by Jack, "...okay!" he adds.

"Fire in the hole!." shouts Jack, he detonates the C4 and blows a very large hole in the mountain, the loud sound of the explosion travels around the mountain, they see their first signs of life on the planet when birds emerge flying from the trees across the field after being scared by the noise.

"Found the door handle." says Jack.

"Funny." replies Daniel.

When the dust clears they step through the archway and head in to the cave, the sun is beginning to set so there's not much light getting inside, they use their flash-lights, they only get a few meters in to the cave when they already begin to see signs that they're in the right place, skeletons and metal armour litter the floor.

"Jaffa?" asks Jack, shining his light at the floor.

Teal'c kneels beside some of the bones, "I do not know, O'Neill. I do not recognise the armour or the symbols on their arms." he says.

Unlike the Jaffa of today, who's primes had their masters symbols etched in to their foreheads with gold, the skeletal remains on the floor of the cave appear to all have symbols etched in to their arms at the backs of their wrists.

"Daniel?" asks Jack, hoping he may know.

"No, don't recognise it. Linda?, have you ever seen these." replies Daniel.

"Nope." replies Linda.

They continue pushing forward and getting deeper and deeper in to the long winding cave, they converse while continuing to walk.

"What does Xaoeruntri actually mean?" asks Vala.

"Uhm, well...loosely translated it means the Three fish of death." replies Daniel.

"Fish?!" says Vala.

Daniel shrugs, "I said loosely." he says, he's not entirely certain what it means but that's the best translation he can come up with without going through his text books.

* * *

They turn a corner in the caves and come to a junction where it breaks off in to several other passageways, walking through one of the passageways they enter a large room with a dead end, several skeletons lay on the floor, as they shine their flash-lights slowly around the room they see that the walls, ceiling and floor are completely covered in strange writing, the writing looks like it was etched in to the rock very crudely.

"What's all this?" asks Jack, shining his light in Daniel's face.

"I'm not sure." replies Daniel, shielding his eyes and turning away.

"Can you read it?" asks Jack.

"Maybe" replies Daniel.

"Daniel-Jackson." says Teal'c, standing at the far wall at the end of the room.

Teal'c found a large image etched in to the rock, it looks like three human heads cut off at the neck, "What do you make of this?" he asks.

Daniel goes over and kneels in front of it, "Could be a record of what happened here, three severed heads and the squiggly lines here could represent Goa'uld symbiotes, this looks like fire rising below them."

"Wait a second." says Jack, he turns and looks at Linda, "Didn't you say that what you saw in your flashback was the Goa'uld trying to keep something contained in here and sealing off the cave?" he asks.

"Yes, that's what I saw." replies Linda.

Jack looks at Daniel, "Then why would they bother making a record of it, putting all this writing on the walls. Thought they were in a hurry to get the heck out of here?." he asks.

"Well actually I don't think they intended to do this. I mean look around, there's Jaffa skeletons everywhere, if they were running from something and trying to get out then they wouldn't have intentionally cornered themselves in here. I think these Jaffa probably got trapped in here when the Goa'uld sealed off the cave and...well, they obviously couldn't get out, they probably did all of this before they died." says Daniel.

Jack shakes his head, "Yeah, whatever. This obviously isn't what we're looking for so let's keep going." he says.

"I err, I'd like to stay here for the time being and see if I can make sense of all this. It may tell us something useful to help us." says Daniel.

"All right, Vala, you and Daniel stay here. We'll see what else we can find." replies Jack.

"...and Linda, she may be able to help me translate this." says Daniel.

"Fine. Linda, stay with them. Come on Teal'c." replies Jack, he and Teal'c head off to explore.

* * *

For the next hour Daniel, with Linda's help is slowly going over every inch of the room and reading every letter of text etched in to the walls trying to translate and discover what it all says, he brought a few books with him that he uses to translate text and he's started to get a few letters and words figured out but so far they're not having a lot of luck, Jack and Teal'c continued to explore the caves via the different passageways but they haven't found anything else of interest, the caves appear to go on forever – or at least it feels like they do to Jack and Teal'c.

Daniel is sitting on the dusty floor with his legs crossed comparing the text on the wall with that in his books, "This doesn't make any sense." he moans, closing the book and standing up.

"What the writing?" asks Linda.

"No. Well yes...but I mean, you see this.." says Daniel, pointing to text on the wall, "...this looks like some variation of Goa'uld, but it appears to be blended with what looks to be ancient Greek." he says.

"..and what does that mean?" asks Linda.

"The best I can make out is that it tells the story of what happened here, most of it is vaguely like you described it in your flashbacks. It says – if I have it right. Here be the final resting place of the fish of death, their souls be dammed and entombed for the rest of time...Evtera, Esno, Evrali... That's all I've been able to translate so far." says Daniel.

"Doesn't tell us much does it." asks Linda.

"No it doesn't." replies Daniel.

Jack comes in over the radio, "Daniel, come in."

Daniel picks up his radio, "Yeah Jack."

"Find anything?" asks Jack.

"We're working on it." replies Daniel.

"All right, well listen, Teal'c and I are heading back, we haven't found anything and my feet are killing me, so we're going to head back have a rest and get some food." says Jack.

"OK. See you when you get back." replies Daniel, he drops the radio on top of his backpack and stands in front of the wall again with his arms crossed trying to make sense of it.

"..fish..fish.." Daniel mumbles to himself, "..it doesn't make any sense...because it's not fish.." he adds.

Daniel grabs his backpack and quickly pulls out another book, he opens it and flicks rapidly through the pages then points to the wall, "It's not fish.." he says aloud.

Linda comes and stands by him, "What?" she asks.

"It means sisters...The Sisters of death." replies Daniel.

"The Xaoeruntri, I guess they could have been female." says Linda.

Daniel continues reading the text on the wall, "...Evtera, Esno, Evrali..." mumbling again to himself in concentration.

"What?" whispers Linda.

"Shush shush, quiet a minute." says Daniel, "Sisters...Oryova...Oh my." he says again to himself and looking a little shocked, he then quickly turns and picks up his radio, "Jack, Jack, Teal'c, come in." he says.

"What is it, Daniel?" replies Jack.

"Where are you?" asks Daniel.

"Heading back." replies Jack.

"Well hurry up, we need to get out of here..right now." replies Daniel.

"Daniel what's going on?" asks Linda, standing behind him.

"Shush." sounds Daniel.

"What's up?" asks Jack.

"Just get back here as quickly as you can." replies Daniel, he grabs his backpack and pushes his books in to it roughly, he then swiftly walks outside the room, "Vala, come on we're leaving. Vala?" he says, expecting to see Vala sitting outside the room which is where she said she was going when she got bored reading all the text.

"Have you seen Vala?" asks Daniel.

"I thought she was out here." replies Linda.

"Vala." shouts Daniel, he looks to the floor and sees a single set of footprints leading off in to one of the passageways, "Oh no." he says.

Just then Teal'c and Jack run out of a passageway and towards them from the opposite direction, "Daniel." says Jack.

Daniel throws his backpack at Jack who catches it, "Hold this." he says, "Vala." he shouts running down the passageway.

"What the hell is going on?" asks Jack, stepping over to Linda.

"I don't know, he was reading the text and then he started to panic and took off." replies Linda.

Jack looks down at the backpack he's holding, looking confused, he throws it on the floor and starts running after Daniel, "Teal'c come on." he says.

Linda just stands there, "Hey, he said we need to leave." she shouts, "Great, just great." she says, then starts reluctantly running after them, "Hey wait for me!" she shouts.

* * *

Everyone is now running through the same passageway, Jack keeps shouting "Daniel" and they can hear Daniel constantly shouting "Vala" as they run forward, they can see the chaotic beam of light from Daniels flash-light flicking all over the cave walls as they try to catch up with him.

As Daniel comes around a corner he can see the walls in front of him lit up, the light gets brighter and brighter as he moves forward, the light is coming from inside a large room at the end of the passageway, he slows down to a walk as he approaches and he can see Vala standing near some steps at the far end of the room.

"Vala." says Daniel, catching his breath.

Vala turns around to look at him, Daniel hunches down with his hands on his knees exhausted from all the running, he waves his torch, "Come on we're leaving." he says, calmly.

"Daniel, look what I found." says Vala, referring to the three golden statues standing at the top of the steps in a triangle, two stand either side of the steps while the third is in the middle against the back wall, they're all facing outwards towards the room entrance, the status are about 4 foot tall and in the shape of snakes, "Gold." she says.

"Yeah that's...that's nice, but come on we gotta go." says Daniel.

Vala turns back around and runs up the steps, when she reaches the top she lovingly rubs the gold statues, "Help me carry this one." she shouts, as she tries unsuccessfully to lift one of the statues, she stops when she hears a rumbling sound, the two statues at either side of the steps suddenly start to turn inwards, "Erm..Daniel." she says.

The statues continue to turn and then stop, they're all now facing in towards each other and Vala is stood right in the middle looking slightly freaked, more rumbling sounds are heard and large panels spread the full the length of the side walls start opening, Vala runs towards the steps but she's forced back by some kind of forcefield, "Daniel!" she shouts in panic.

"Vala." shouts Daniel and he runs towards the room.

As he enters the room his eyes catch a glimpse of something coming out of the wall and starting to glow, at that precise moment Jack and Teal'c quickly come running in, Jack grabs Daniel's collar and very quickly and roughly pulls him backwards and out of the room, almost choking him to death, as they fall backwards out of the door the objects coming out of the walls shoot off energy blasts, one after the other in rapid fire from both sides of the room.

The room and passageway soon fills with dust, smoke and debris from the blasted rock hit by the energy fire, the ceiling and walls crumble and start to collapse all around them, this goes on for a few minutes until the side walls of the room cave in and destroy the guns in the walls.

When the rocks stop falling, Teal'c gets to his feet and tries to find the others through the thick choking clouds of dust, he finds Linda on the floor close to him and helps her up, she and Teal'c were the furthest away so managed to escape the worst.

"O'Neill. Daniel-Jackson." shouts Teal'c.

"Daniel." shouts Linda.

Linda hears the faint sound of Daniels voice calling out, "Teal'c, over here." she says.

They find Daniel and Jack on the floor, covered with loads of rocks, Teal'c pushes the rocks off them and he and Linda help them both up, they're covered in cuts and bruises but no immediate signs of any seriously nasty injuries, although Jack has dislocated his shoulder and holding it firmly.

"Have you seen Vala, where's Vala?" asks Daniel.

"I do not see her." replies Teal'c.

"Vala." shouts Daniel, coughing from the dust inhalation.

"Vala." shouts Jack.

Visibility is minimal, the cave is so deep within the mountain that there isn't much air flow, as a result the thick cloud of dust is taking a long time to dissipate, Daniel sees a yellow glow through the dust and heads over the rubble towards it, "Vala." he keeps shouting.

As he walks through the dust cloud things become a little clearer and he sees Vala on her hands and knees at the top of the steps, strangely the veins in her arms appear to be glowing a bright yellow, he slowly walks to the bottom of the steps and looks up at her, "Vala." he says, calmly.

Vala slowly pushes herself off the floor and stands up, she looks down at Daniel with a tiny tear droplet in her eye.

Daniel walks up a couple of the steps, "Vala?." he says softly with concern.

"I love you." replies Vala.

Suddenly Daniel takes a clumsy step back down the steps in shock and horrified when he sees Vala's eyes glow in a flash of yellow.


	8. Out of time

Daniel was clearly horrified and in shock after seeing Vala's eyes glow yellow, it is the sign he and his team dreads seeing the most, the sign of a Goa'uld in their presence, he stands at the bottom of the steps just staring at her with disbelief.

"Daniel...Danny boy.." shouts Jack, clambering over the rocks and debris towards him with Teal'c and Linda.

Daniel doesn't move and doesn't even acknowledge them.

"There you are.." says Jack as he makes it over to him and places his hand on his shoulder, "..did you find her?...Daniel!." he says.

He looks up to the top of the stairs as Teal'c and Linda find their way over, together they see Vala and join Daniel with looks of disbelief, Vala gently looks down at them and then slowly walks down the steps one step at a time, Jack and Teal'c react by raising and aiming their weapons at her.

"Woha...hey..hey..Hold it!" shouts Jack.

Vala stops, her eyes glow in a show of power.

Daniel becomes responsive again when he sees his team mates getting their weapons out, "What are you doing, put your guns down." he says with concern.

"Do not come any closer." says Teal'c.

"Oh holy cr*p." says Linda.

"Put them down." shouts Daniel, stepping in between them and Vala, getting in the way of their guns, "Put the gun down, Jack." he says.

"Are you nuts?!. Get out of the way." replies Jack.

"You would be wise to listen to him." says Vala, oddly in her own voice.

Jack tilts to look over Daniels shoulder, "Oh yeah, whys that?" he asks.

Vala doesn't reply, she stands and lightly wiggles her fingers, as she's doing that the veins in her arms glow yellow, a strange sound is heard when her veins glow, it resembles the sound of hundreds of snakes hissing at once.

"The hell is that?" whispers Jack, turning to face Teal'c.

"I do not know." replies Teal'c, as puzzled as Jack.

"Just...just put them down." says Daniel, pleading with them to put their weapons down.

As Vala once again starts to slowly walk down the steps, Jack and Teal'c reluctantly lower their weapons and Daniel turns and steps back to them as they move to the side out of Vala's way when she reaches the bottom of the steps.

"So which Goa'uld are you meant to be?" says Jack.

"She's not a Goa'uld, Jack." replies Daniel.

Jack quickly looks back and forth between Vala and Daniel, "Uhm yes she is..her eyes glowed, that usually means a frickin Goa'uld." he says.

"I am not sensing the presence of a Goa'uld." says Teal'c.

As Daniel, Jack, Teal'c and Linda stand side by side, Vala is standing in front of them, she turns and faces them with a look of curiosity on her face.

"Why have you released me?." asks Vala.

"We didn't, at least that wasn't out intention." replies Daniel.

"Then why are you here?" asks Vala.

"If you are like the Goa'uld, then you should still have Vala's memories, you should know the answer to that already." replies Daniel.

"Like a Goa'uld?!, what do you mean like a Goa'uld, she is a Goa'uld Daniel." blurts Jack.

Vala glances over to Jack with a flash of her glowing eyes, that comment appeared to insult her, "I am not a Goa'uld!" she proclaims.

"She's not a Goa'uld, Jack. I translated the writings on the cave walls, she's a Gorgon." explains Daniel.

"A Gorgon?" questions Teal'c.

"Its from Earth Greek mythology. The Gorgons were three sisters named Sthenno, Medusa and Euryale, they were described in different forms but the most common showed them as being hideous creatures with hair made of snakes, they were also cursed to never find love and any man that laid eyes on them would be turned to stone." explains Daniel.

"You have a lot of knowledge." says Vala, "..but your stories are inaccurate." she adds.

"Well that's obvious considering you clearly don't have hair made of snakes and we haven't turned to stone. Question is...which of the three are we speaking too?" says Daniel.

Vala looks at Daniel but ignores his question.

"So...not a Goa'uld?" asks Jack.

"No." replies Daniel.

"It is true that I am a Gorgon. My race came into existence millions of years ago at the hands of our creators, after a war ravaged our home I, due to an...error of judgement on my part ended up here in this galaxy, I spent thousands of years trying to find my way back and then I ran into the Goa'uld. It was they who eventually trapped me here...I have been here ever since, waiting to be released." says Vala.

"But I had a vision of this place...I saw them kill someone." says Linda.

"My original host. Spending so much time in this galaxy had weakened her, her strength had left her and sadly she succumb to their overwhelming forces." replies Vala, with a hint of regret in her voice.

"You cared about her?, your host." asks Daniel.

"Yes. We were united under the worst of circumstances, it was a forced union but we shared a bond, she was my friend." says Vala.

"If the Goa'uld did indeed murder your host, why did they not kill you as well?" asks Teal'c.

"They couldn't, they wanted to preserve me, hoping that one day they could replicate my power and use it for themselves. Members of my race are born with three minds, three heads as one, when the Goa'uld extracted me from my host they butchered me and stored me in the three vessels you say up there." says Vala.

"And you lived?...how?" asks Linda.

"Good question." says Jack.

"Thanks." replies Linda.

"Yeah. So?" says Jack.

"The circumstances that lead to my being in this galaxy also left me with the inability to die. I have laid here tormented by my own thoughts, separated from myself for thousands of years, until your friend gave me the chance of freedom." says Vala.

"She didn't know you were in there, she never would have allowed you to take her as a host if she knew. If you care about your hosts, then I beg you please let Vala go, if she's still in there." says Daniel.

"She is here, I feel she cares about you...but she..." Vala begins to say, then she slowly turns her head as she drifts off in to thought, "...Secia..." she whispers.

"What?" asks Daniel, didn't quite hear what she said.

"Secia.." says Vala, then quickly turns to look at them again, "Secia, how does she know that name?" she asks.

"Who, Vala?. We're under attack at the moment by someone we believe calls herself Secia." replies Daniel, "...you know who that is?" he asks.

"Secia is here...now?" asks Vala with urgency, she steps up to Daniel, "Is she here?!" she demands.

"Yes yes...she's here." replies Daniel.

"Hey, back off!" shouts Jack, as he and Teal'c move and once again aim their guns at her.

Vala steps away and paces briefly back and forth, "This isn't possible." she says, looking very agitated, then she suddenly turns around and takes off running through the cave, the rocks littering the ground ahead of her disintegrate into dust as she passes them, the others give chase but she's too fast and soon she disappears from view completely.

As they reach the cave entrance they look out but don't see her, as they stand and wonder where she could possibly be they look down in to the fields below the mountain and see the blue vortex of the Stargate appear and then disappear in seconds, after coming to the conclusion that she must have made it through the gate, they decide to head down and get back to Earth.

Daniel looks very disappointed in himself for letting this happen to Vala.

"Don't worry. We'll find her." says Jack, trying to reassure his best friend.

* * *

**Destiny**

* * *

Work has been under way to fit the salvaged Furling engines to Destiny, it has been extremely difficult work because the technologies are very different and Destiny wasn't built to use or run an engine this powerful, it's has been hard and they've worked non-stop for hours and finally got it all hooked up.

"Colonel." says Kevin Grover, head engineer, as he walks in to the central control room rubbing the back of his neck with a rag, he's covered in grease and dirt, "The engine has been fitted and we're just collaborating and creating sub routines to run it." he says.

"How long before its online?" asks Mitchell.

"A couple of hours, we need to get the power regulation setup and run a few tests then we should be good to go." replies Kevin.

"Good work. Tell your people to take a break, they deserve it." replies Mitchell, patting Kevin on the shoulder.

"Thank you, Sir." replies Kevin, he heads back out of the room.

Rush has spent the last few hours sitting at a console in the central control room running calculations and trying to find a way to do what Mitchell requested him to do, he did the easy part but the rest is proving difficult.

Mitchell walks over and stands by him, leaning over on to the console and looking at the screen, "Rush hows it going?" he asks.

"It would be going a lot faster if you stopped interrupting me to ask how its going." replies Rush, in his usual cheery manner.

"The engine is ready. We need you to be ready." replies Mitchell.

"You have no idea of the complexity of what you're asking me to do. The power requirements alone are going to be enormous, creating a field this large will probably end up ripping the ship to pieces the moment we try to move and kill us all." replies Rush.

"There are bigging things at stake here, we can't afford to fail, Rush." says Mitchell.

"Yes I know, I'm doing the best I can." says Rush.

"Colonel Mitchell, this is Young. You may want to come to the observation deck, and bring Rush with you." says Colonel Young over the radio.

"Perfect. More interruptions." moans Rush.

Mitchell and Rush head off to the observation deck, when they get there they see Young, Lt Scott and Camile standing at the front looking out of the windows.

"What's up?" asks Mitchell as he walks in with Rush and joins the others standing by the windows.

"Take a look." replies Young.

Off in the distance they see tiny dots of objects that are gradually getting bigger as Destiny slowly moves towards them, as they get closer more objects start to appear ahead of them, first 4, then 5, then 10 or so objects and the number slowly increases, soon the ones getting closer to Destiny become clear to see, they're Seed ships, all recalled by Rush a few hours earlier, he instructed them all to return to Destiny's location, its a wonderful sight to behold.

"How many of these things are out there?" asks Lt Scott.

"As far as we can tell, the Ancients sent out a few dozen or so of these. Obviously this isn't all of them, I imagine some would have broken down or been destroyed over the centuries." replies Rush.

Dr Lee runs in to the observation deck, "Colonel...Colonel's." he says, puffing and panting, he's out of shape.

"Yeah Doc?" replies Mitchell.

"Wow, that's a lot of ships." says Dr Lee, mesmerised by the sight of all the Seed ships out of the window.

"Erm Doc. You were going to say something." says Young.

Dr Lee points over his shoulder, "Oh yes. I've finished the collaboration and the power crystal is online." he says.

"We're good to go?" asks Mitchell.

"Yes." replies Dr Lee.

Mitchell looks at Rush, "Waiting on you." he says.

"Right, yes, of course." replies Rush, he hurries out back to the central control room to finish his calculations.

"So we're really going through with this?" asks Camile.

Colonel Young glances at her, "Yes we are." he says.

* * *

**Earth: Stargate Command**

* * *

The Stargate activates in the gate room and Jack, Teal'c, Daniel and Linda step through, they're met with the sight of several armed marines kneeling near the base of the ramp, two large gun turrets stand either side of the room, loads of crates are pushed and stacked against the far wall, lines of refugees stand at the outer corridors by the entrances to the gate room, Sam is standing at the foot of the ramp.

"Welcome back, we were starting to get worried." says Sam, walking up the ramp to meet them.

Jack gives her a hug, "You're back. Good to see you." he says, "Find anything in Antarctica?" he asks.

"Yes, we think we may have found another weapon. I was asked to come back to the base and help with the Naquadah bombs, McKay stayed behind to try and get it running. It looks promising." replies Sam.

Teal'c bows his head at Sam.

"Hey Teal'c." says Sam, she looks at Daniel, "Daniel.", then looks at Linda, "Linda." she says in a not so happy to see her tone.

Sam looks around a realises someone is missing, "Where's Vala?" she asks.

Teal'c lowers his eyebrows and head, Jack glances over to Daniel then lowers his head, Sam can sense something is wrong.

"Jack?...Daniel?...well...well where is she?" asks Sam, concerned and getting inpatient at the lack of response.

"She urm...she was taken by a Goa'uld." says Jack.

"Gorgon." snaps Daniel, correcting Jack, not that it matters.

"A What?. Well how, what happened?" asks Sam.

"We found the caves and went to explore them, Vala went off on her own and found a chamber, she went inside and a...Gorgon..took her as a host." says Jack.

"Then she ran through the caves and we believe we witnessed her fleeing the planet via the Stargate, we were unable to contain her." says Teal'c.

Sam shakes her head in disbelief, "Oh God, oh God, Daniel...I..." she says, she walks over to her and starts to extend her arms to give him a hug but he takes off quickly walking down the ramp and out of the room, "...Daniel." she shouts.

"Just give him some space." says Jack.

"Why is everyone lining up outside?" asks Linda.

Sam looks at her, still shocked at hearing the news about Vala, it takes her a moment to gather her thoughts, "Oh erm...they err...we're evacuating them to Atlantis." she says.

"Why?" asks Jack.

"She's coming Jack. We detected her ships shortly after you went off-world, they're on their way and heading right to us. Hundreds of them. We're evacuating as many people as we can to Atlantis and preparing our ships in orbit. They'll be here in less than a day." says Sam.


	9. Wing and a prayer

Vala was taken as a host by what Daniel believes to be a member of a parasitic race called the Gorgons, like the Goa'uld, the Gorgons are a snake like life form who take possession of other life forms by entering their bodies and controlling the mind of their host, Gorgons may even be a subspecies of the Goa'uld or a race that evolved on a different world in a similar way, however, unlike the Goa'uld who take hosts purely for control and power and bring fear to those around them, the Gorgons nature is still unclear.

Daniel believes the particular Gorgon that took Vala as a host is that which is described in Earth Greek mythology to be one of three sisters, Sthenno, Medusa and Euryale. Gorgons have a distinctive and prominent difference to the Goa'uld in that they're born with three heads, as with their nature, it is unclear whether a Gorgons three heads contain three individual consciousnesses, or if they are in fact a single entity.

After taking possession of Vala, the Gorgon, whoever it may be, ran away and left the planet known as Orac through the Stargate after appearing to become angry when it learned that Secia was in this galaxy, they still don't know if she is a friend or possibly on her way to join their new enemy and fight with her against them, when SG-1 returned to the SGC they learned that Secia has finally made her move and sent her ships toward Earth.

* * *

**Meanwhile: On board Destiny**

* * *

The details of the secret mission designated "Operation SunDial" that Colonel Mitchell and his team were sent on have finally become clear, Mitchell, and a team of scientists and engineers were sent to a planet in the Milky Way known as Langara, they were tasked with using their Stargate combined with the enormous amount of energy generated from the Naquadria that lined the planets core in order to reach the Ancient ship the Destiny, currently located several billion light years from Earth – its exact location relative to Earth is still unknown.

Their mission is to fit powerful Furling engines to Destiny, these engines were salvaged from a crashed Furling ship discovered by Colonel Sheppard and his team a few months back in the Pegasus galaxy, the powers that be back on Earth know just how powerful their new enemy is and that she has powerful ships are her disposal, something that Earth and its allies are lacking, if they have any chance at winning this fight they're going to need every ship, every weapon and every resource they can get their hands on, that includes Destiny.

Not only are they planning on bringing Destiny back, but thanks to Dr Rush successfully initiating a recall command to all the Seed ships in communication distance, they now plan on bringing the Seed ships back with them as well, although the Seed ships are smaller than Destiny and may not have as much fire-power, they still have weapons which will prove useful.

Colonel Mitchell and Colonel Young join Rush in the central control room after watching the Seed ships converge on Destiny's position from the observation deck.

"Rush, how's it coming?" asks Young.

"I'm almost finished..." replies Rush, holding his hand in the air signalling to leave him alone, "...just..give me a few more minutes." he adds.

Rush has been working for several hours on the calculation required to not only power the Furling engines safely, but also 'tow' the Seed ships back with them.

"Tick-Tock, Rush." says Mitchell, tapping his watch.

Rush looks irritated, "Will you shut up, these are incredibly complex calculations, if they're off by even a fraction we could end up anywhere in the universe...or worse case scenario we could end up blowing ourselves to pieces the moment we power up the engines and enter hyperspace. Now if you don't mind, please shut the hell up and let me do my work." he snaps.

Mitchell looks at Young in frustration, Young just shakes his head, he's been around Rush for a long time and is use to his outbursts and behaviour, "Just work as fast as you can, Rush." says Young.

"Lt Scott, could you ask everyone to meet in the gate room in fifteen minutes, I'd like to say a few words." requests Young.

"Yes Sir." replies Scott, he swiftly walks out to get everyone together.

* * *

**Stargate Command**

* * *

Jack, Teal'c, Daniel and Linda have been back at the SGC for a few hours now, since their return they've been helping out on base preparing for what's to come, refugees continue to flock through the Stargate trying to escape the destruction Secia's ships are leaving in their wake, the refugees were turned around and immediately sent back through the gate where teams on Atlantis are waiting to escort them to temporary safe worlds in Pegasus, but the ZPM used to power the gate to Atlantis was urgently required at the Ancient Outpost in Antarctica where McKay has found a weapon they may be able to use to defend Earth.

Both McKay and Sam believe the weapon they've discovered is similar to the one used by the Ancient called Chaya Sar, who they met on a planet called Proculus in the Pegasus galaxy, if it works then the weapon would create a type of highly charged energy net around the planet that theoretically would destroy anything that came in to contact with it, McKay has been working hard to connect the ZPM and power the weapon, it isn't working yet but he's confident he can get it up and running before the enemy ships arrive.

When SG-1 returned to Earth, Daniel walked off from the others needing some time to himself, Sam was very concerned about him and after attending a short meeting in the briefing room she decided to go and see how he's doing, so she heads to his research room.

Sam reaches Daniels research room and stands in the doorway, the lights are off but its not completely dark inside, the light from the corridor lights the room dimly, looking into the room she can see a table with piles of books scattered on top of it, "Daniel." she gently calls out, "Are you in here?" she asks, taking a few steps in to the room.

"Yes." replies Daniel in a muffled tired tone.

Sam lightly jumps when she hears his voice, "Oh, you frightened me.." she says with a light giggle, "Where are you?" she asks, glancing around.

Daniel slowly stands up and his head appears from behind the large pile of books on his desk, "Here." he says.

Sam takes a step back to the door and turns on the lights, "Why are you sitting in the dark?" she asks.

Daniels cheeks are red from the tears he's clearly been shedding, his eyes are puffy and look lost and distant.

"I don't know." replies Daniel.

"Jack told me the whole story about what happened to Vala, I'm sorry Daniel." says Sam.

"No, you have nothing to be sorry about...me...I'm the one whose sorry, it's my fault." replies Daniel.

"Don't say that." replies Sam.

"Why not, its true isn't it. First Sha're, then Sarah and now Vala, I couldn't protect any of them." says Daniel, filled with guilt, he catches a couple of tears running down his face with his bottom lip.

Sam goes over and stands by him, "Its not your fault, there's nothing you could have done, don't blame yourself. Vala is out there somewhere, we'll find her." she says, leaning in to hold him.

Daniel holds his arms up and moves away from her, "Don't, don't touch me. It was my idea to go to that planet, to satisfy my stupid curiosity." he shouts.

He walks around his desk and points at the books after sniffling and briefly sucking back the tears, "You know what, I spend most of my life reading these things, learning about our past and hoping to find something new, something exciting, something that will rewrite history as we know it...but it always ends up getting us in to trouble. Sha're is gone, Sarah is gone and now Vala is gone, and it's all my fault!" he shouts, getting angry, he takes his arms and sweeps them across the table sending all the books crashing to the floor, "..me and these damn books." he shouts.

Sam quickly moves back towards the door in shock and a little bit frightened, she's never seen Daniel this way, "Daniel." she shouts.

As Daniel continues to throw his books around and drag them off the shelves in a rage, Jack and Teal'c enter the room, they're equally shocked at his behaviour, "Daniel, what the hell are you doing..." shouts Jack, a book hits him on the legs, "..all right!" he says and he runs towards Daniel dodging the books and he grabs him.

"Get off me!" shouts Daniel, angry and getting upset.

"Calm down, Daniel..." shouts Jack, face to face with him and holding his flailing arms, "..Daniel, stop it, cut it out." he shouts.

Daniel gets really upset and starts crying and wailing, he slouches over a little and puts his arms around Jack and they stand holding each other, Daniel is Jacks best friend and he knows he's hurting, "Its all right, Daniel...its all right." says Jack comfortingly.

Jack comforts Daniel for a few minutes until he starts to calm down, "Come on, this isn't helping any body." he says, releasing the hug and holding him on the shoulders, "Danny, hey look at me. I know you're hurting, but we need you buddy...don't fall apart on us now. Do you think Vala would want you being like like this, if she was here now what would she say?." he says.

"Probably call me a wimp and tell me to suck it up." sniffles Daniel.

"Yeah, well...suck it up you wimp." replies Jack, which makes Daniel smile briefly, "Are we good?, or am I going to have to get Teal'c to sit on you." he adds.

"I'm good." replies Daniel.

"Good." replies Jack, giving him a friendly slap on the cheek, "..cos you scared the crap out of Sam." he adds.

Daniel wipes his eyes and sucks in the tears, "Oh, Sam. Sam I'm so sorry." he says, turning to face her.

They walk towards each other and hug, "Its all right, Daniel. You've been through a lot. I know you love her very much." says Sam.

"I just...I wish she was here." says Daniel.

Jack puts his hand on his shoulder, "Hey, we'll find her, we'll get her back, I promise." he says.

Daniel nods, he knows his friends are going to do everything they can to help get her back.

"What are you guys doing here anyway?" asks Sam.

"Huh?!, Oh, right. McKay said he's got the weapon working but he wants to run some things by you first...and some guy called uhm...uhm..." says Jack, he can't remember his name.

"Professor Hisington." says Teal'c.

"Right, from Berkeley is waiting for you upstairs." says Jack, looking at Daniel, it seems to perk Daniel up a bit.

"Really. He was doing some research for me, he may have some information that could help us find Vala. I better...we should get up there." says Daniel.

They all head out of Daniels research room.

* * *

**Destiny**

* * *

Everyone on board the ship, with the exception of a few engineers still carrying out vital work and Rush continuing to run his calculation, have been gathered in the gate room, they're all standing by the Stargate facing away from it and looking up at Colonel Young whose standing above them between the two curved staircases.

"Good morning." says Young, the crew stop talking and listen.

"You're all aware of what's been happening here for the last day or so and you know the reasons why and what we're about to do. This wasn't the wakeup call any of us were expecting to get when we entered the stasis pods, and even though we've all been desperate to get home for the last two years this probably won't be the homecoming any of us were expecting

Earth is our home, that's where we all want to be and what we hoped for, a goal that's kept us together for so long, now it seems we're finally going to get there. Its dangerous and could kill us all, I'm not going to sugar coat it, there is a good chance we could all die trying to get home, but Earth is currently facing a very serious threat, they're at war...WE...are at war, they need our help.

We all have friends, family and love ones back home who are counting on us, now I can't put it to a vote and ask which of you want to go through with this, because we ARE doing this regardless, I've gotten to know you all very well in the time we've spent together and I know that you all agree we should go through with this, am I right?" says Young.

Everyone below responds with a "Yes."

"I can't say I'm happy that we all ended up here so far from home and we can't change the circumstances that brought us here, but I can say that I'm happy that I ended up here with all of you, I'm proud of each and every one of you, and it's truly been an honour to know you and work with you, every single one of you...now let's go home." says Young.

The crew feels the same way as Young and are touched by his speech, "We're with you Sir.", "Lets do this." shouts from below.

"Colonel Young." says Rush over the radio.

"Yeah, Rush?" replies Young.

"I've finished my calculations." replies Rush.

"Be right there." says Young, "Take your stations." he says to the crew below and he and Lt Scott hurry back to the central control room.

Dr Rush has finished his calculations and he's ready to go ahead with their plans, the 18 Seed ships have been remotely piloted in to positions around Destiny, their positions have to remain extremely close and constant if this is going to work so several crew members are on the bridge controlling them and adjusting their positions every second so they don't collide with each other or Destiny.

"Hey Colonel, we're good to go." says Mitchell, "I used the communication stones to contact Earth, I've told them we're on our way. We need to hurry, the enemy is already on approach." he adds.

"All right." says Young, he gets on the radio, "Everyone get in to your positions, we're about to get going." he says, then he nods at Rush.

"Ready when you are, Colonel." says Rush.

Mitchell and Young share a silent look and give each other the nod.

"Do it, Rush." says Young.

"Expanding hyperspace field to encompass the ships outside.." says Rush, the lights flicker momentarily as the power is increased and transferred to the engines, "...field is active and holding. Initiating engine power-up." he says.

The rear engines on Destiny light up yellow and gradually glow and get brighter and brighter, then as the Furling engine kicks in it turns the light emitted to a bright blue.

Rush slowly moves his finger towards the hyperspace activation button on the control dash, "3...2...1" he says, then he pushes the button.

As the engines fire up and activate, Destiny, with the Seed ships in tow, enter hyperspace like a bat out of hell, at blink-and-you'll-miss-it speeds, however, as they enter hyperspace the incredible speed proves too much for the internal dampeners to handle and everyone is thrown backwards, Rush, Mitchell, Scott and Young are thrown across the floor and in to the walls behind, thankfully they're not splattered against the wall but the force is so strong its difficult for them to move, its like battling against a gale force wind.

"What's happening?!" shouts Lt Scott.

"Help me to the console." replies Rush.

Rush crawls slowly across the floor towards the consoles, with the others pushing him as best they can from behind, he eventually reaches a chair and uses it to pull himself partly up, he then reaches out and using the console he brings up the dampener systems and uses his finger to move the slider up and increases the output, when it reaches maximum his body goes limp and the inertial force goes away.

"What happened?" asks Young, picking himself up.

"We forgot to adjust the internal dampeners to compensate for the speed increase." replies Rush, out of breath, "I have it now, it's okay." he adds, getting in to his chair.

"So we're in hyperspace, it worked?." asks Mitchell.

Rush brings up the holographic display, showing a galactic map and Destiny's current location as a moving blip, "See for yourself." he says.

"How fast are we going?" asks Young.

"Uhm...I don't know, sensors can't keep up with the speed we're travelling, Destiny wasn't designed for this." replies rush, "..but we've already travelled several million light-years. We should be near home in a day or two at this rate." he adds.

Lt Scott glances at Rush then looks at the display and smiles, "We're going home." he says.

"Good job, Rush." says Young, its not often he gives Rush praise.

"Thank you, Colonel." replies Rush, surprised by the praise.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy - A short distance from Earth**

* * *

A fifty plus fleet of ships made up of Jaffa, Tok'ra and Earth vessels were dispatched several hours ago to the Abydos region in order to intercept Secia's fleet, Two F-304's have been rushed in to service, the USS Lincoln and Freedom join Jaffa and Tok'ra Ha'tak and Al'kesh ships as they sit a few light years from Abydos currently in formation directly blocking Secia's path.

All the ships have weapons and most have already been retrofitted with Asgard beam weapons, however some are still a work in progress so teams of engineers are scattered around the ships of the fleet trying to get them functioning and ready for battle.

Cpt Philips on board the Lincoln is stood on the bridge by his chair holding a clipboard and signing off on various equipment requisitions the other ships in the fleet require.

"How long until the modifications are completed?" he asks Jessica, the female engineer standing in front of him waiting for the authorisation forms.

"It'll be a few more hours yet Sir." she replies, "...the Tok'ra are helping us hurry things along." she adds.

"Get it done as quick as you can." says Philips

As he's handing her back the clipboard, Major Carrigan calls him over after picking something up on sensors.

"Yes, Sir." replies Jessica, she turns and leaves

Cpt Philips leans over Carrigan to look at the console screen, "What is it Major?" he asks.

"Four unidentified objects just entered sensor range." he replies.

Then Cpt Dunne of the USS Freedom radio's in, "Lincoln, this is Freedom." he says.

Cpt Philips moves over and sits in his chair, "Yes Freedom, go ahead." he replies.

"We've detected four objects heading our way." says Dunne.

"Yes we know, we just detected them ourselves. Alert the fleet and have them stand by." replies Philips.

The fleet moves in to defensive positions, raising shields and readying their available weapons and wait for the arrival of the objects detected on route to their location, when the objects enter visible range its clear that they're indeed enemy ships as they feared, they slowly move towards the fleet and then take up a formation of their own in a line ahead of them, then they just stop and sit there.

"Only four ships, not exactly the army we were expecting. I don't think they'll be a problem." says Philips.

He immediately regrets saying those words when Major Carrigan is suddenly spooked by the loud beep of the sensor array and sending him in to a panic and speaking barely coherently.

"Ehm..S...S..S...S...Sir..." he says.

Off in the distance they see blue flashes of hyperspace windows opening, first a few, then more and more flashes appear, soon the horizon is just a beaming blue streak of light caused by thousands upon thousands of ships exiting hyperspace and taking up formation next to the other enemy ships.

Cpt Philips heart almost bursts from his chest as his mouth dries and he gently gulps down the last drop of saliva from his mouth.

The atmosphere on board all the ships is tense and fearful, silence falls over the open communication channels between all the ships in the fleet as they watch and wonder when the first move will be made.

"What are they waiting for?" asks Dunne over comms.

"I don't know." replies Philips, "..hold your position." he adds.

Earth's military are taught to remain calm in these type of situations, keep the mind clear and focus, the Jaffa, however, are not so calm in these types of situations, perhaps its instinct, an old reflex from their time serving the Goa'uld in battle or just plain fear, they order their ships to break formation and attack the enemy without waiting for orders.

"Jaffa, attack!" screams Kojek, commander of the free Jaffa fleet.

His scream can be heard on all ships through the comms, "No!." shouts Cpt Philips, springing from his chair, "Ha'tak vessels hold your positions." he shouts.

Its too late, the Jaffa have already moved forward and begun firing on the enemy ships, the enemy ships then retaliate by moving forward and opening fire on the Jaffa, both sides get some good hits on the other and the Ha'tak vessels managed to take out a few of them, but they're too fast and too manoeuvrable and the Ha'tak vessels are too damn slow, it's like bees swarming around snails, the Jaffa are losing this fight rather quickly and it soon becomes apparent just how powerful the enemy ships truly are.

"Damn it." shouts Philips in anger and panic, "..all ships open fire, move in and engage." he orders, planting himself firmly back in his chair.


	10. Small Victory

Less than an hour has passed since the fight between the fleet and Secia's ships began, the Jaffa were too confident and too eager to wait for orders before they pushed forward and opened fire on the enemy, however, when the fight began the Earth ships Lincoln and Freedom and the Tok'ra vessels had no choice but to open fire and join the fight with their Jaffa allies.

The Jaffa and Tok'ra have suffered the highest losses, all of their Al'kesh and most of their Ha'tak ships have been completely destroyed, the F-304's Lincoln and Freedom have been extremely heavily damaged, Freedom was punished the worst in the fight and has been blasted to near destruction, thousands of lives were lost and the fleet now drifts lifeless in space surrounded by the debris of the destroyed ships.

The fight was intense and they didn't hold back, they gave everything they had but it wasn't enough, they only managed to take out several of Secia's powerful ships, the thousands of ships that survived the fight continued forward, after the crippling defeat of the fleet, there's now nothing to stop them from reaching Earth.

* * *

**On-board**** the USS Lincoln**

* * *

The ship is badly damaged and its dark inside, the entire crew lay unconscious or dead on the floors and slumped over consoles and chairs, jets and clouds of coolant and O2 seep from the ceiling and surrounding floor vents, cables and wires dangle and twist from panels and are sparking randomly, a dim red light slowly flashes around the halls and corridors, the sound of a dying alarm echoes throughout, the ship is angled and slightly slanted to one side due to the loss of its stabilisers, the occasional screech and bang is heard as the debris from outside slams against the hull and rocks and shakes the ship.

The ships intercom activates, its damaged so there's lots of loud static and the transmission keeps breaking up, "Lin—ln -ome in...", "L-ncoln do y-u read, over."

Its Captain Dunne of the USS Freedom, "Lincoln, ple-se respond."

Jessica, the engineer who was on her way back to help complete the modifications to the Jaffa ships, she was ready to use to use the ring transport when the attack began and she never made it off the Lincoln, she wobbles her way through the corridors using the walls the steady herself, as she gets to the bridge entrance she props herself up against the door frame, nursing her bleeding head which she injured in a fall, looking around the bridge she sees the captain on the floor and goes over and kneels beside him.

"Captain, wake up, captain." she says, nudging him and trying to turn him over.

"Lincoln this i- Fr-edom do you read, over." says Dunne.

Jessica hears the static call, she stands and looks up towards the intercom speaker, "Yes, yes, this is the Lincoln...hello...can you hear me...hello." she says.

"Y-s we read you. Wh- is t- c—dit- of -o- -ip" replies Dunne.

The transmission is too garbled, "What?, repeat what you just...I can't understand what you're saying..." says Jessica, she looks at the consoles behind her and goes over to them, Major Carrigan is slouched over it, "Major?" she says as she tries to wake him but she soon realises he's not breathing.

She steps back for a moment clasping her hands over his mouth and crying a little from the shock, she's young and inexperienced in these situations this is her first mission off-world and she's never seen anything like this before, she manages to get herself under control and then gently pulls Carrigan off the console and places him on the floor, she then returns and accesses the systems to fix the radio signal.

"This is the Lincoln, can you hear me?." she says.

"Yes I hear you, who is this?" replies Cpt Dunne.

"Oh thank God. The transmission was messed up but I fixed it, I couldn't understand you. I'm Jessica."

She hears a moan in front of her, Captain Philips is regaining consciousness, she gets up and swiftly goes over to him, "Captain..." she says, helping him up slightly, "..you're alive." she adds.

"Where is Cpt Philips?." asks Dunne.

Jessica looks up to the speaker again, "He's here, he's alive...captain." she shouts with a mix of excitement, worry and confusion.

Philips sits up, he's also bleeding from the head and thinks his leg is broken, "W...w...what happened.." he utters.

"We were attacked sir...everyone is...I...I...I...are you okay?...can..can you get up?." says Jessica, very shaky at this point.

"Captain Philips."

"Dunne, is that you. What's the situation?" asks Philips.

The USS Freedom's entire crew, with the exception of Captain Dunne are all dead, the attack from Secia's ships blew holes all around the their hull, half of the engines are missing, the right docking bay has been blown off, the shields failed nearly 20 minutes ago and everyone on board who survived the initial attack have now sadly suffocated from lack of oxygen, Dunne and two other crew members managed to contain themselves in a small vacuum sealed room moments before the hull breached, sadly the two crew members have since died from their injuries and Dunne is now running out of air and has no safe way out of the room or off the ship.

Jessica helped Philips to his feet and got him to his chair where he now sits.

"What about the Tok'ra..the Jaffa." says Philips.

"I've been trying on the radio for over half an hour, they're either dead, unconscious or unable to respond but I haven't seen any movement for a while. As far as I know we're the only ones that survived." replies Dunne.

"The enemy?" asks Philips.

"They took off a while ago." replies Dunne.

"Can we transport him over?" asks Philips.

"Transporters are completely fried, they can't be repaired." replies Jessica, checking the systems via the console.

"Look, Phil, don't worry about me, you can't save me. If your ships engines can be repaired you need to get it done and get back to Earth, they're going to need all the help they can get." says Dunne.

Philips looks at Jessica without saying anything, she knows he wants to know about the condition of the engines, she nods back at him.

"Sean, I …. I'm sorry." says Philips, Sean Dunne is one of his closest friends.

"Hey, don't worry about it, we knew this was a possibility before we left." replies Dunne.

"I'm sorry too." says Jessica.

"Thanks Jessica. You just get that thing in working order, fight nots over yet. Listen, airs getting a little thin in here and its hard to stay awake...so..." says Dunne.

"..I'll see you soon, Buddy." says Philips.

Dunne laughs slightly, "Yeah, I'll save you a spot..." he says, then the signal drops with static.

After taking a brief moment of silence, Philips turns to Jessica and slowly stands, "Can you get the ship moving?" he asks.

"Working on it captain." replies Jessica.

"Good girl, I'll see if I can wake some of the crew." replies Philips, he places his hand on her shoulder for reassurance, "You're doing great." he adds.

* * *

**Earth: Stargate Command**

* * *

In the higher level control room where a temporary global command station has been set up, with the aid of NASA's new Asgard sensor equipped satellites, they've been monitoring surrounding space and radio transmissions, they've just received a data burst that was automatically broadcast from the USS Freedom when their ship hit in battle, they're in the process of de-constructing the partially corrupted data.

Sam is in the main control room on video communication with McKay at the Ancient outpost in Antarctica, together they're attempting to get the energy weapon online, Sam can see McKay walking around and using an Ancient console while they try to figure it out.

"Are you reading any output at all?" asks Sam.

"None." replies McKay, with a exhausted flap of his arms.

"Maybe you should run another diagnostic." says Sam.

"That'll take hours. The ZedPM is engaged, power is getting through to the capacitors, the crystal that Adria gave us is plugged in and as far as I can tell it's ready to go." replies McKay.

"But how are we going to target it if we can't control it?." asks Sam.

McKay comes up closer to the camera, "I don't think we're meant to control it." he says.

"What do you mean?." asks Sam.

"Well according to the data we've already been able to access on this thing, it's designed to encompass the entire planet like a shield..or a protective bubble, I don't think it has any targeting mechanisms, its just a simple on and off switch." replies McKay.

"In that case we're ready to go." says Sam.

"Uhm. Well the only way we're going to know for sure is when we turn it on..." says McKay.

"..but we can't do that yet because the ZPM is almost depleted and we can't risk wasting the power." says Sam.

"Exactly." replies McKay.

"All right, I'll inform the General that we're ready." says Sam.

As Sam is talking to McKay, the General comes rushing down the spiral stairs with Jack and Teal'c, "Colonel!" he shouts.

Sam stands up, "General, I was just coming to see you Sir. We think the Ancient weapon is ready." she says.

"Good. Turn it on." says Landry.

"Sir?" asks Sam.

"We just received word from the fleet that was around Abydos, they engaged the enemy ships, NASA just detected them on approach. They're here." replies Landry.

"Here, Sir?!. What about the fleet did they..." says Sam.

"They lost, Colonel." says Landry with regret, "..we need that weapon online now." he adds.

Sam jumps back in her seat, "McKay, did you hear that?." she says.

"Are you sure you want me to turn it on now, maybe we should wait until they get a little closer, we don't want to drain the power too soon." says McKay.

"They're close enough, Doctor." says Landry.

"Yeah but..." says McKay.

"They could fire on us McKay, they don't need to be close. Activate the weapon." says Jack.

"All right." replies McKay, he goes over to the console and enters the activation sequence using the Ancient symbols, "That's it, it's active." he adds, looking up and around.

"Are you sure?." says Sam.

McKay goes over to his laptop displaying visual data of the weapon, "Yeah, yeah..." says McKay, he turns his laptop around so Sam can see the screen, it shows an image of Earth and a thin yellow line circled around it representing the energy shield/weapon, "..See, now we just wait." he adds.

The phone on the wall beside the large computer terminals rings, Landry goes over and answers it, "Landry." he says, "...right. Lock down the mountain." he adds, then replaces the handset.

Landry takes a deep breath before speaking, "They're here." he says.

They all head upstairs to the global command control room to monitor the situation and see what's happening, thousands of Secia's ships have gathered and slowed to a stop in close proximity to the Moon, the command room goes completely silent for the next few minutes as they all wait to see what's going to happen next, then a group of around a hundred ships breaks away from the others and slowly head towards Earth, as they get closer they separate and fan out.

"They're firing!." announces Sgt Ellis from a monitoring station.

The group of ships begin to fire slowly yet rapidly at Earth, as their weapons fire a few hundred meters from the atmosphere they strike the energy field and don't penetrate, as they hit it the energy from the weapons fire is absorbed in to the field, tiny Earth quakes are felt by those below.

"Waah, are some of them getting through?." asks Jack.

"No...the shield is working." replies Sam.

The link to McKay was transferred up to the command room when the others went up, "It's just a tremor, minor Earth quakes, the weapons fire being absorbed by the shield is producing shock waves, nothing to worry about...this is normal." says McKay.

"How long will the shield hold?" asks Teal'c.

"We're not sure." replies Sam.

"General." says Jack, as he walks over to the TV after seeing what was being shown on it.

A news network is broadcasting from California, showing the lights in the sky above and people standing around watching, Jack and Landry share a brief look of concern.

* * *

Unlike previous attacks on Earth by the Goa'uld, who were in a way quickly disposed of and hidden from the public gaze, this is a very different event all together, the flashes and pulses from the weapons fire hitting the shield above the atmosphere don't go unseen, people in cities and towns all over the world, men women and children are now looking to the skies with questions, worry and fear in their eyes.

The President, who remained on Earth rather than leaving with the other refugees to Pegasus, had only moments ago decided to make an emergency broadcast and inform the world about what was going on, they have a right to know and the secret is all but out, however, as he was preparing to make the broadcast, the shock waves from the weapons fire on the shield have caused massive EMP to hit the surface and it's knocked out power all across the planet, only those facilities and buildings shielded from EMP now have power, most of the world has been plunged in to darkness.

Suddenly everyone in the room stumbles after feeling a large vibration beneath their feet.

"What the hell is that?!" shouts Jack.

"They've increased fire Sir." says Sgt Ellis.

The ships appear to be firing very powerful energy pulses at the shield, not as rapid as before because they now seem to be charging their weapons before releasing the pulse, to make matters worse they have moved positions and are now converging and focussing their fire on a single spot, directly above Antarctica, they've discovered the source of the shield.

"They're firing above the outpost." says Sgt Ellis.

Sam stumbles her way over to her computer as the pulses continue to rock the Earth, "McKay.." she says, she can see McKay standing in the middle of the room and the console beside him shorting out and sparking.

"..Jeesh...Holy...What the!" shouts McKay, as he uses his arms to cover his face from the electrical shorts.

"McKay what's your status?" asks Sam.

"I'm crapping myself, that's my status." shouts McKay.

"Is the shield holding?" asks Sam.

McKay goes over to his laptop, "Oh great." he says.

"What is it?" asks Sam.

McKay turns the laptop around and shows her the screen, he looks very worried, it's showing the ZPM power levels, it's flashing red indicating it's about to lose power completely.

"Hold on McKay we'll get you out." says Sam, she turns around, "Get the transporters online." she says.

"The transporters won't work, there's too much interference from the shield." says Sgt Ellis.

Sam doesn't accept that, she gets up and goes over to bring it online herself, she tries and tries but Sgt Ellis was correct, there's no way the transporter will function under these conditions, she slams her fists down on the keyboard in anger and then goes back over to her computer.

"Rodney, I'm sorry." she says.

"Don't be sorry, get me outa here!." replies McKay.

"The transporters won't work." says Sam, "Maybe if you can get to the lower levels they'll protect you from the blast." she adds, trying to find some glimmer of hope.

McKay has never been calm in this type of situation and he's always been about self preservation when things got bad and he never gives up, but this time there truly is no way out, there's nothing he can do and he realises that, "So this is it, this is how the Great Rodney McKay's going out huh." he says.

"Rodney." says Sam, feeling helpless.

"Well, at least I went out saving the world huh...well..tried too anyway." says McKay.

Jack, Teal'c and Landry stand behind Sam with their heads slightly down, they don't know what to say, tears run down Sam's cheeks, "You did great, Rodney." she says.

McKay turns his laptop back around and starts frantically typing away on the keyboard.

"What are you doing?" asks Sam.

"What I do best, if I'm going out I'm taking some of them with me...I'm going to blow it up." replies McKay.

"How?, you don't have any power." asks Sam.

"I'm sure I can squeeze out a little extra from the ZedPM...there we go." says McKay, joyously pushing the Enter key to compile his program.

"Won't that collapse the shield?." asks Sam.

"The shields going to collapse anyway once the ZedPM runs dry, so who cares." replies McKay.

Sam smiles, "Good point." she says, a beep is heard in the background of the video.

"Power is about to go down, its now or never. It's been a err...pleasure. I guess." says McKay.

"A real pleasure, Meredith." says Sam.

"Had to bring that up didn't ya." replies McKay, "Goodbye Sam, I..." he says, then the transmission suddenly ends.

"McKay?...Rodney?.." says Sam, slapping her laptop hoping to get the signal back.

"He's gone, Colonel. The outpost was just hit." says Sgt Ellis, softly from the other side of the room, "Sorry." he adds.

Using their combined super charged weapons fire, the ships managed to break through the shield and destroy the Ancient outpost in Antarctica, sadly Rodney McKay was killed in the blast, however, he left behind a little going away present for the enemy ships, as the ZedPM was in its last dying moments, he created a program that would channel every last drop of power back through the shield generator overloading it and causing it to expand outwards, the shield engulfed the hundred or so ships around Earth and destroyed them all before dissipating and vanishing.

Thousands of ships still remain in formation and stationary around the Moon, this was a huge victory for McKay, but a small victory in the grant scheme of things, the first battle has been won, but the war is just beginning, now they have no Earth defence shield and Earth has never been so vulnerable, the world now prays for a miracle to save them.


	11. End of days

**Atlantis: Pegasus Galaxy**

* * *

The Atlantis teams have been relocating the refugees sent from Earth to safe planets in the Pegasus galaxy for a number of hours, all of them are now located off world, including Kanaan and Teyla's son Torren. Sheppard's team has just returned from their last drop off, after docking the Jumper in the bay they head down to the control room to meet Woolsey.

"Colonel Sheppard, I trust everything went well?." says Woolsey.

"All refugees accounted for and relocated, had a few complaints about the quality of the food they were left with though." replies Sheppard.

"I hate that ration stuff." says Ronon.

"Yes well, its food and its all we have so they'll just have to make do for the time being." replies Woolsey.

He and the control room personnel have been constantly monitoring the situation unfolding in the Milky Way using Atlantis' deep space sensors, unfortunately they're not powerful enough to see exactly what's happening near Earth but they detect the enemy ships heading for that region.

"Any news from Earth?" asks Sheppard.

"None." replies Woolsey, looking concerned, "We've attempted to dial Earth several times to get an update but we've been unable to make a successful connection. Hopefully there's a simple reason for that and it doesn't mean the gate has been destroyed." he adds.

"What about the ships?." asks Ronon.

Woolsey looks at Zelenka to deliver more bad news, "The sensors detected a massive fleet of ships entering the Milky Way galaxy a couple of hours ago, at the speed they were travelling they'll more than likely have reached Earth by now." says Zelenka.

"Well what are we waiting for, let's get this thing moving." says Sheppard.

"I'm sorry, Colonel?" asks Woolsey.

Sheppard looks confused by his response, "Lets go, get the city in the air." he says.

"Are you suggesting we take Atlantis to Earth?." asks Woolsey.

"Yes that's what I'm suggesting...why are you even asking." replies Sheppard.

"We have our orders, Colonel. We're to help relocate the refugees and remain here until we receive further orders." says Woolsey.

Their orders came from the President himself, Woolsey isn't being difficult he's just following orders, even though deep down he feels he should be helping Earth in the fight.

"Earth could be under attack right now." says Sheppard.

"We don't know anything, the gate is offline we can't even contact them." replies Woolsey.

"Exactly. Look, Woolsey, I don't want to get in to an argument here, but they could be crying out for our help right now, without the ZPM on Earth they can't contact us and as you said the gate is offline we obviously can't contact them. We've relocated the refugees, they're safe, now orders or no orders I still think we should go see what's going on and give them backup if they need it." says Sheppard, calmly.

"I agree with Sheppard." says Ronon.

"What is the harm in us simply going to check that everything is all right." says Teyla, "If they do not require our assistance then we can return and no harm will have been done." she adds.

Woolsey goes deep in thought, he wants to help but at the same time he doesn't want to disobey orders, what if he takes Atlantis to the Milky Way and it gets attacked or even destroyed, who will protect the refugees then, on the other hand, what's the point in being in command of one of the most powerful ships they have if he can't use it to defend his home world, Earth is priority, orders be damned.

"Very well. Colonel take the chair, Zelenka prepare the city for launch." orders Woolsey.

"Good call." says Sheppard, patting Woolsey on the arm before running off toward the chair room.

* * *

**Stargate Command**

* * *

It's only been fifteen minutes since the enemy ships managed to successfully disable and destroy the Ancient defence shield around the planet, killing Dr Rodney McKay in the process, everyone in the global command room at the SGC are upset after recent events but there's no time to mourn, even though McKay managed to destroy a hundred or so cluster of their ships, thousands more remain in close proximity.

The entire world were witness to what just happened, large bright flashes from the weapons fire lit up the sky, shock waves rocked and shook the planets surface, all of which was reported live on news broadcasts around the world shortly before an EMP wave knocked out power around the globe, people have started to panic, riots have broken out and the citizens of Earth are scared, this is exactly what the President and world leaders wanted to avoid, its too late now.

"General, we've got movement." announces Sgt Ellis, sitting at the monitoring station.

"What's happening, Sgt?." asks Landry.

The thousands of ships lined up near the Moon have started to move, but they don't appear to be heading for Earth, instead they're breaking formation and slowly moving backwards away from the planet.

Sam sits beside Sgt Ellis, "Are they leaving?" she asks, looking at the readings on the screen.

"That's what it looks like. There's no readable energy build up, they're not powering weapons." replies Sgt Ellis.

"Retreating perhaps." says Teal'c.

Jack shakes his head, "Why would they retreat?, they destroyed the shield, they know we're defenceless. The hell are they doing." he wonders.

The ships broke formation and began to move backwards, but they formed two new separate formations leaving a large gap between them.

"More ships entering sensor range." announces Sgt Ellis, when the sensor satellites pick up the arrival of new objects.

"What?!" snaps Landry, leaning over to look.

Sam rolls to one side on her chair to the terminal beside her, "I don't think they're ships, these look smaller." she says tapping away on the keyboard, "I'll try get an image from the satellite." she adds.

The smaller objects move slowly through the empty space between the two enemy ship formations, there's roughly sixty of them all moving together towards Earth, when they get close they separate and take up positions around the entire planet and then stop, holding positions in perfect synchronous orbit.

"I've got a fix on one, image is coming through now." says Sam, an image from the satellite slowly constructs on the screen of the console, "Oh my God." she says in shock.

"Are...those what I think they are?." asks Jack.

"Stargate's." says Teal'c.

"Yeah, and lots of them. They've completely surrounded the planet." replies Sam.

Jack remembers all the scientific mumbo jumbo he's heard about the Stargate over the years and similar scenarios they've experienced before, he instantly knows what needs to be done, he needs to activate the Earth gate as quickly as possible to prevent anyone dialling in, he ran towards the stairs and was two steps down when he heard Sam shout him.

"It's too late." she shouts, he comes running back in to the room.

The updated satellite imagery on screen shows a Stargate has activated, then another activates, then another, and another, and another, until all the gates surrounding the planet are active.

"What the hell." says Sam in disbelief.

"I thought that wasn't meant to be possible?." asks Landry.

"It's not, this many gates in close proximity shouldn't all be able to activate at once." replies Sam.

"Well they have." says Jack.

"She must have found a way, she obviously knows more about the gate system than we do." says Sam.

Teal'c bends down to look at the screen, he points toward it, "What are those?." he asks.

As they're looking at the screen they see streams of dark objects rush out from all of the Stargate's and descending through the atmosphere, what they're actually seeing are hundreds of thousands of winged creatures swarming out, they're in fact the Ancients that Secia transformed in to monsters to use as her own personal army, and they're now heading towards the surface of the planet.

"Oh my God..." says Sam, spinning around in her chair to look at Jack and Landry standing behind her, "...they're heading for the surface." she adds.

"General!" says Jack, after pausing for a few moments to take in the information, things are about to get very bad and the billions of people on Earth are now in grave danger.

Landry briefly glances at Jack before turning and running over to the red phone, "Get me the President." he screams as he picks up the receiver and holds it to her ear.

* * *

**Earth**

* * *

From the moment the orbiting Stargate's activated, people from every country around the world who were until now occupied and dealing with the global power outage and walking the streets trying to make sense of what was going on have now stopped and are looking to the skies as tiny blue specs flash above them.

Moments later they saw streams of dark objects descending from above, as they got closer they could see clearly what they were, hideous winged beasts, swarming towards the surface, people turned and ran in crowds of thousands through the cities and towns, running for their lives as the creatures chased and began attacking them, millions of them swarming around buildings, crashing through windows of buildings high and low, grabbing innocent people from below and carrying them off in to the air, the world is in a state of panic and fear.

Military powers of the world burst in to action when they became aware of the attack and have begun despatching ground troops, ocean warring vessels and air support to their cities to protect their country and citizens from the invasion.

Squadron of F-302's, F-35's and F-22 fighter jets have been dispatched from Travis Air Force Base in California to deal with the creature attacks in both California and San Francisco, war ships are making their way to the coast line and ground troops are already in the city regions.

In San Francisco, the fight has been going on for a few hours, people run for cover as the creatures fly around and nip at them from above, fighter jets are looping the city while being chased by the creatures and shooting them as best they can without causing civilian casualties.

"Mayday – Mayday" shouts Major Danson over his cockpit radio and the beeping sounds of the alert and malfunction alarms filling his ears and several of the creatures clamped around his jet, he spins out of control hitting the side of a tall building in an exploding fireball, several civilians are killed and injured when the resulting rubble from the explosion falls to the ground below.

Troops are moving through the streets in large groups shooting at the creatures trying to protect people, "Base command, base command, come in." says Major Wilkinson, continuing to fire on the enemy closing in around them.

"Major what is your status, over." replies Base Command.

"Heading East through Golden Gate Avenue, escorting approximately 72 civilians. We are under heavy attack, request immediate EVAC, over." replies Wilkinson.

"EVAC is unavailable at this time, repeat, EVAC not possible. Suggest you find secure location and take cover, over." says Base Command.

Major Wilkinson roughly removes his ear piece and swears under his breath in frustration while continue to fire on the enemy, the jets continue to fly over head firing and occasionally exploding in the air, large explosions are seen in the distance as war ships by the coast are doing their best to fight off the enemy and deploying rescue boats as thousands of people desperate to escape the city run across the beaches and leap in to the freezing cold waters.

Similar scenes are happening all over the globe, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Russia and army's in every country around the world do their best to fight off the enemy but millions of lives have already been lost, cities and towns already partially destroyed and in ruins from attacks on both sides, no one could have predicted the attack would be so sudden and so devastating, the world has been turned in to one big battle ground.

Back in San Francisco, as a jet flies by and successfully takes out a large bunch of the enemy creatures, Major Wilkinson and his team take the chance to make a run for it, exiting Golden Gate Avenue they run quickly up Market Street as more creatures head towards them, they pick up some more survivors on their way and continue moving forward.

"Major..." shouts Sgt Fern as he spots and points in the opposite direction after seeing another swarm heading their way, "...incoming." he adds.

Major Wilkinson looks around frantically, he runs toward the large doors of the Westfield Mall, after confirming they're open he calls back and waves to his team, "In here, come on, move, get it here." he shouts, ushering in the civilians and his team.

Just as everyone runs inside and he's begins to close the doors, he just happened to glance down the street and he stops closing the door part way when he sees a woman standing in the middle of the street, "Close these doors." he orders, as he runs out towards the woman.

"Major, where are you going?" shouts Sgt Fern.

Major Wilkinson turns and points back at him, continuing to run down the street, "Close the doors!" he orders again.

When he gets within a few meters of the woman he's a little startled, he has experience working at Stargate Command, just last year he was part of a team of marines sent through the gate to rescue SG-6 who were being held hostage by a small group of Jaffa still loyal to their fallen God Anubis, he knew this woman, he'd seen her before at the SGC.

"Vala?" he says with questions, "..is that you?." he adds.

"Major.." says Vala, standing and gazing behind him at the quickly approaching swarm of creatures.

"Yes?" says Wilkinson.

"Duck." replies Vala.

Major Wilkinson is slightly puzzled by this, after looking over his shoulder and seeing the swarm he suddenly dashes out of the way, around and behind Vala, falling on the floor on his back and raising his weapon ready to fire and defend himself.

Vala's eyes glow orange and with a determined and fearless expression on her face she springs and raises her arms out in front of her generating a field around herself at the exact moment the creatures close in, then as the thousand strong swarm of creatures hit the field they turn to stone and are deflected away from her, she has to place a foot behind her to keep herself falling over from the concussive force of them striking the field like a never ending speeding train, as they turn to stone and bounce off the field they hit the street and surrounding buildings, crumbling and breaking in to pieces.

When the sounds of the creatures screeches and stone crumbling booms subside, Major Wilkinson, who had used his arms to cover his face, slowly untangles his arms and looks around in shock, he stops and stares when Vala turns around to look at him, then he scrambles to his feet hitting off the dust and debris from his gear, "Oook." he says, after looking around at the piles of rubble around him.

"How did you do that, where did you come from...what the hell is going on here?." he asks.

"I need to get to the SGC, can you take me." asks Vala.

"What?.." says Wilkinson, shaking his head, "..No. Look, I don't know how you did what you just did, but if you can beat these things then we need you to help us." he says.

"There's no time." says Vala, turning and walking away.

Major Wilkinson follows walking along side her trying to make her stop, "Wait..you can help us, people dying out there." he says.


	12. War Zone

The creatures continued their unrelenting attack on Earth and its population for days, every city around the globe was devastated, buildings demolished and turned to rubble, countless people lost their lives, fires rage wildly across entire continents, thick black smoke covers the sky where clouds use to be and chokes the air turning it toxic and barely breathable.

The military powers of the world fought back with everything they had, they continue to fight even now with their limited resources but as they struggle to take down the enemy hundreds more descend from the sky to take their place in a fight that appears will never end.

* * *

**Stargate Command**

* * *

Those at Stargate Command are continuing to communicate with army's around the globe, feeding them intel and getting vital supplies to them, it hasn't been easy for them just sitting around watching screens and talking in microphones while everyone else is out fighting, but what can they do, they're locked in the mountain and people are counting on them to relay messages from global command.

On a large table in the middle of the room is a large map of the world, plastic markers placed all over it indicating the location of both friendly and enemy troops, Jack, Teal'c, Landry, Sgt Bates and Sgt Gibson stand around trying to come up with a strategy to fight them.

"..move our carriers from Cuba." says Sgt Gibson.

Jack shakes his head, "No.", he steps around the table and points to the map, "..there's not enough time for them to get around there, we'll get the Chinese to pick them up." he says.

"The survivors are already near the Nigerian coastline, if we send one of our carriers over now they'll have a better chance of reaching them." says Sgt Bates, also pointing at the map from the opposite side of the table.

"The largest swarm is currently moving south through Libya, Egypt and Algeria. If we dispatch a carrier now the enemy will be all over them by the time they get there, the Chinese fleet is currently moving around Somalia and heading towards South America, if we direct the survivors their then the Chinese can pick them up." says Jack.

"What are you thinking, Colonel?." asks Landry.

"We need to get everyone down to Argentina, there's little enemy activity there now so it's a safe place to regroup and work on a strategy to take out these f*****s once and for all. Right now every ones all over the place and we're running out of fire power, I think a retreat is our best option right now." says Jack.

"That appears to be the correct course of action, we are greatly outnumbered and our forces are spread thinly across the planet. If we wait any longer we may not have much remaining in which to fight with. " says Teal'c.

"Agreed." says Landry, he turns to Sam who's sitting at the command station, "Issue a global order of retreat, tell them to proceed immediately to..."

"Sir the ships are moving." announces Sam, interrupting Landry.

Sensor satellites are showing the thousands of enemy ships near the moon are fanning out and moving away from Earth, heading back the way they came.

"Now what are they doing?." asks Jack.

Sam shrugs her shoulders, "I have no idea." she replies.

As the enemy ships begin to turn and move away, at least a hundred hyperspace windows suddenly open ahead of them, Jaffa and Tok'ra Ha'tak vessels and Tulla ships emerge and immediately spread out opening fire on the enemy.

"More ships!." says Sam in panic.

As everyone shares a look of despair at each other, Sam realises they aren't enemy ships, she glances around with a gently smile, "They're friendlies." she says.

Before they can let out a breath of relief, they're distracted by the sudden sound of the base alarms and Walters voice over the comms alerting them to an off-world gate activation.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Close to Earth**

* * *

An epic space battle is under way in surrounding space, the likes of which none of the races involved could ever imagine or believe was possible, it's a tangled mess of enemy and friendly ships and flashes from rapid weapons fire, so chaotic with ships whizzing around in all directions leaving almost zero time to actually get a fix on each other that they're accidentally firing upon their own side on occasion.

A few minutes after the battle began, another hyperspace window opens and Atlantis emerges, they come out of hyperspace in to the middle of the chaos and end up ploughing in to a hundred or so ships and sending them ricocheting off the shields and many explode and the force of the blasts shake the city.

"Zelenka!" shouts Woolsey, holding on to the side of a console for dear life as the city rocks back and forth, "What was that?" he asks.

Zelenka is kneeling on the floor in front of the sensor console with his hands raised up pushing buttons, "Ships, thousands of ships...we hit them..they're enemy vessels, Ha'tak vessels...they're all over." he says erratically.

"Enemy ships?" asks Woolsey.

"Yes!." replies Zelenka.

Woolsey pushes his earpiece button, "Colonel Sheppard." he says.

"What the hell is going on up there?!" replies Sheppard, sitting in the shaky control chair.

"Fire the drones, Colonel, I'm afraid we may be too late, we're surrounded by enemy ships." says Woolsey.

Sheppard looks distant and confused for a moment, then leans back hard in the chair and closes his eyes tight to concentrate.

The drone hatches of Atlantis open up and drones begin to fly out and attack the enemy ships, with no immediate control Atlantis continues to slowly drift in to the chaos of the battle.

Woolsey turns to Ronon and Teyla, "Get everyone in to Jumper's now." he orders.

"I don't know how to fly those things." says Ronon, glancing at Teyla.

"Go!" shouts Woolsey.

Ronon and Teyla don't really have any flight experience with the Jumper's but after a brief hesitation they head off towards the bay with several other personnel to get the Jumper's out to join the battle.

* * *

**Stargate Command**

* * *

Jack, Teal'c, Sam and Landry moved down to the control room when the Stargate began to move, they make it down and look through the window out in to the gate room just as it connects and activates.

"Walter." questions Landry, wanting information.

"I'm not receiving an IDC, Sir." says Walter.

Landry looks at Jack, "We have no teams off-world." he says.

"One of our allies maybe." says Jack.

"Could be Atlantis." says Sam.

"They have orders to wait until we contact them." says Landry, puzzled as to who it could be, "You're not receiving anything?." he asks.

"No Sir. No identification codes or signals of any kind, just gate static." says Walter.

Just then they quickly glance back as they hear a very loud bang coming from the opposite end of the base.

"What was that?." says Jack with a curious expression.

Landry walks over to the base phone and picks it up, "This is Landry, what's going on out there?." he asks.

Gunfire and lots of shouting is heard over the phone as someone answers it, "..we have a breach Sir, base is no longer secure. - Down! Down! Down!..." then it cuts off.

"General." says Teal'c, looking out at the gate.

As they look out they see the IRIS gradually bending outwards, "Defence teams stand by!." orders Landry, quickly rushing back over to the console and bending down to the microphone.

The IRIS continues to bend and buckle until it eventually snaps and shoots out landing near the base of the ramp and rolling around like a slowly falling spinning coin before it settles and stops flat on the floor, everyone in the gate room and control take a quick step back in shock when this happened, their eyes flicking around in wonder and not knowing where to look, then a foot steps through the vortex followed by the rest of the body, it's Secia.


	13. Nowhere to run

The defence teams open fire on Secia from all sides but it appears to do nothing at all, the marines aren't incompetent, they're not firing blanks, they're hitting their target dead on and the bullets clearly hit her but appear to do no harm what-so-ever.

Then several of her creatures come flying through the event horizon and attack the marines in the gate room, it becomes frantic with the marines constantly spinning around trying to shoot them and they end up shooting holes in the surrounding walls, some of the creatures are hit but it doesn't stop them from attacking and severely injuring the marines.

"Lower the blast wall!." shouts Landry when bullets start hitting the bulletproof glass of the control room window.

"Teal'c!" shouts Jack, turning to him after seeing the defence teams weapons fire having little effect, "Sam, stay here." he adds.

"Jack." says Sam, stepping forward with concern.

"No Sam, stay here. Go back upstairs out of the way." replies Jack as he and Teal'c run out to the armoury.

* * *

**SGC – Daniels Research Room**

* * *

Daniel has been inside his research room with Linda since the attacks on Earth first began, Professor Hisington from Berkeley University came to the SGC to inform Daniel of his findings regarding Secia the meaning of the word 'Omitus' which Daniel asked him to research a few days previous.

Unfortunately Professor Hisington was unable to find a direct translation or meaning for the word, but he did find a reference to Secia inscribed on a surviving Greek scroll fragment from the Ptolemaic Empire, this had given Daniel a specific era and starting point at which to continue his research.

Linda is helping him but she is surprised at what he does, having Ba'als memories she remembers Daniel being a part of SG-1 and using guns, fighting Jaffa and Goa'uld countless times, she knew has was an archaeologist but never imagined he would be this much of a history buff or book worm as it were.

"So this is what you do all the time, read books?." asks Linda, walking towards the main table with a large old open book suspended in her arms.

"Yes.." replies Daniel, "What are you doing!...don't..." he shouts as he looks up and sees Linda about to sit in the chair opposite, "..don't sit there." he says.

"Why not?." asks Linda, looking at the chair and wondering.

Daniel doesn't want her to sit there, its Vala's chair and she has no right to use it, he flicks his finger pointing to the another chair at the side of the table, "Use that one." he says.

Linda cautiously takes her seat at the other end of the table and they both continue with their research for several more hours, reading book after book looking for any information that can help then, then Daniel who had been reading the same book for the past two hours suddenly and slowly raises his head with a 'Eureka' look on his face.

"Of course." shouts Daniel, briefly jumping up and down and sweeping his hands up his forehead and down the back of his head to his neck, "Why didn't I see this before." he says.

"What...find something?." asks Linda.

Daniel grabs the book and slides around to Linda, placing it in front of her, "Look at this, this is a rubbing taken from an old stone column discovered in 1709 at the site of what was believed to be one of the temples of Ptolemaic, the column was badly worn away and has since crumbled to dust but the translation of the partial rubbing here says _pyxída to̱n deinó̱n cho̱rís elpída, cho̱rís télos, méso̱ ti̱s_" explains Daniel.

"Oooooh.." sounds Linda, not having a clue what he's talking about.

"It means uhm, pyxis of evils without hope without end through the...something..something. Now pyxis or puxis in Greek mean vessel, container or box...it also mentions evils." says Daniel, looking at Linda to confirm her understanding.

It's clear Linda isn't getting it so he continues, "There's an old Earth myth that tells of a girl called Pandora who was created by the Greek God Zeus, now he gave her a box filled with great evil to test her curiosity and told her never to open it. Her curiosity eventually got the better of her and she opened the box releasing evil on to all mankind." explains Daniel.

"So Secia is this..Pandora girl?." asks Linda.

"Yes, I think so." says Daniel, happy he's finally found something solid.

"But it doesn't mention her name on this." questions Linda.

"No but it's from the same period and was discovered close to where the scroll Professor Hisington was studying was found." says Daniel, he stands up straight and walks over his book shelves, "..I need to do a little more research but I'm pretty sure I'm right." he says, trying to locate his book on ancient myths and legends.

As they get ready to do more research and confirm their theory, they hear the loud sound of the base alarms and loud bangs with muffled sounds of gunfire, this is the time when Secia came from the Stargate and the base came under attack.

"What is that?." says Daniel, pulling a book from the shelf and pausing when he hears the alarm.

Linda gets up and walks to the door, "I'll check it out." she says as she spots people running past the door through the corridors, "Hey, hey what's happening?." she shouts to someone running past.

Jack comes running down the corridor wrestling with his vest and gear he's just taken from the armoury.

"Jack, what's going on?." asks Linda.

"Stay in there." replies Jack, pointing at her as he runs by.

Daniel runs over and joins her by the doorway, "Was that Jack?." he asks.

"Yeah." replies Linda.

Sticking their heads out of the doorway to stare down the corridor they hear a roaring sound and then see some of the creatures flying towards them and crashing around the walls due to the confined space they're flying in, personnel screaming and running away from them, Daniel grabs Linda and pushes her back in to the room as it roars by.

They get to their feet and stand by the door again a few moments later after hearing gun fire outside, they see Teal'c heading their way from the armoury, "Teal'c!" says Daniel, trying to get his attention.

"Remain here Daniel-Jackson. The base is under attack." replies Teal'c as he runs by, he stops and stands when another creature comes towards him and fires on it with a shotgun, the creature takes several hits and falls scraping the ground before coming to a dead stop a few feet from where Teal'c is standing, he fires one more shot at its head just to make sure.

"Teal'c!" shouts Daniel with concern when he sees the wall and ceiling to the left of Teal'c cracking from the creatures crashing in to it and about to break and fall on him.

Daniel reaches out to try and grab Linda when she suddenly runs out of the room down the corridor, she lunges at Teal'c from behind and pushes him out of the way seconds before the wall and ceiling collapse, but Linda stumbled and couldn't get out of the way in time and it falls on top of her.

Daniel and Teal'c stand at either end of the corridor looking in shock and disbelief.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Space battle**

* * *

The battle continues to wage in space, Atlantis gathered as many people with the Ancient gene as they could and deployed every Jumper they have from both the tower and lower bays, they're not lasting very long, the force of the enemy weapons fire takes out their shield after just a couple of strikes and the Jumper's have been falling like flies, not to mention the loss of the Jaffa, Tok'ra and Tulla vessels which are now numbering near zero.

Atlantis is right in the middle of it and they're taking the brunt of the attacks and doing their best to protect the other friendly ships but they can't keep it up forever, the enemy attacks the city and then retreat to regroup and return in stronger force each time.

The Ancient chair and Sheppard rise to a seated position, "Woolsey." he says over the radio.

"Colonel, keep firing." replies Woolsey.

"I'd love too, but we just ran out of drones." says Sheppard.

Amelia, one of Atlantis' technicians is at the monitoring station, "There's another wave coming in." she shouts, detecting a large wave of enemy ships heading their way.

The enemy ships fly by Atlantis unleashing a barrage of weapons fire over the entire city as they go past, as usual everyone on board grabs hold of something as the city is rocked over and over from the concussive force of the blasts.

"Shields are weakening." shouts Zelenka, as the internal power fluctuates and lights flash.

The console where Amelia is standing suddenly overloads and the panel explodes sending her shooting through the air and over the bannisters, crashing to the floor of the gate level below, "Amelia!." shouts Woolsey as he runs to the balcony, he looks down and sees she's not moving and a blood coming from her nose and the back of her head.

Sheppard comes up the side stairs to the control room and sees Woolsey by the balcony, he goes over and sees Amelia on the floor below, "What happened?." he asks.

"The console exploded." says Zelenka, he gets up and walks over to him, "..we need to leave." he says.

"Why?." asks Woolsey.

"The attack on our shields is taking its toll on the ZPM, it is nearly depleted, if we run out of power and the shield fails while we are in space...we will all suffocate." says Zelenka.

"The chair's fried." says Sheppard.

"What?!" asks Zelenka.

"That's why I came back up here, during that last attack the chair room lost power." says Sheppard.

"Well what can we do?." asks Woolsey.

Zelenka shakes his head and slouches his arms unable to think of anything, "Without the chair there's no way to pilot the city, there's nothing we can do...we're sitting ducks." he says.

* * *

**Stargate Command**

* * *

Daniel and Teal'c stand at opposite ends of the corridor in shock at what just happened, Linda pushed Teal'c out of the way but was unable to get herself out of the way of the falling wall, they can't understand why she did that, Linda has never shown any concern for anyone but herself and being a Ba'al clone they thought she would have taken some pleasure in watching Teal'c get crushed, her actions were totally unexpected.

They rush toward the rubble and start lifting and moving rocks around her, when they reveal enough of her from beneath the rubble they both lift the final large chunk of broken wall and push it off of her to the side, she's alive and conscious but covered in dirt cuts and bruises and clearly in pain, she doesn't look good.

"Linda.." says Daniel, kneeling with Teal'c on the floor beside her.

She breaths hard and short like a ten tonne weight is on top of her chest, "D..D...Daniel..." she moans with pain and heavy breath.

Linda is by no means anyone's favourite person, but she's still a human being even if she is a Ba'al clone, her injuries are bad, both Daniel and Teal'c soon realise she isn't going to make it, Daniel reaches down and holds her battered hand, "I'm here." he says softly.

"I don't...I don't..." whimpers Linda, crying scared and in pain, "...I don't want to die." she says.

Daniel fights the urge to cry himself, no one can see someone in this state and not feel some emotion, "You're not going to die." he says shaking his head and putting on a gentle smile to try reassure her.

Teal'c reaches out and strokes her forehead, she tilts her eyes to the side to look at him when she feels his touch, "What you did was extremely brave, you saved my life." he says.

Linda squeezes her eyes in pain letting out a moan before opening them again filled with painful tears, "Wa...Was..worth..it..Te...Teal'c." she stutters, her eyes begin to slowly blink shut.

"Unlike the Goa'uld before you, you die free, Linda." says Teal'c, "With great honour." he adds, still stroking her forehead.

Linda's eyes remain closed and she lets out one final breath.


	14. Relentless

Secia's creatures had entered the SGC via the Stargate and begun their attack across the entire facility, personnel were taken by surprise as they flew, roared, clawed and ripped their way through the base one level at a time, most of them did not survive and the attack continues, Linda was also a victim having been crushed by a falling wall in the corridors, Daniel and Teal'c took a few moments to stay with her in her final moments after realising they could not save her, she passed away from her injuries a few moments ago.

Teal'c gently slides his palm over Linda's eyes before reaching around for his weapon and standing up, giving her an honorary bow of respect and thanks for saving his life.

"We must move from this location, Daniel-Jackson." says Teal'c, slightly turning his head towards Daniel.

"Right. You go ahead I need to grab something, it could be important." says Daniel, stepping backwards towards the door, "I'll catch up." he adds.

"Very well." replies Teal'c, and he takes off gaining speed as he runs down the corridor and around a corner, cocking his shotgun.

Daniel enters his research room and starts rummaging through his books lined on the shelves, occasionally pulling the odd one out, realising its the wrong one and dropping it on the floor, he pulls out a big old looking book covered in dust which he blows off, "There you are." he says with a slight grin, he takes one final look around and then heads for the door.

When he gets a few feet from the doorway he suddenly stops after feeling a vibration and hearing a rumble, looking around he sees a small cloud of dust fall from the ceiling outside in the corridor, then chunks of plaster falling to the ground, he tries to dash out of the doorway but more rubble drops sending clouds of plaster smoke in to the room choking his air supply, as he moves to the back of the room he hears a louder rumble followed by the sight of the the base level above collapsing into the corridor outside.

When the rumbling stops he covers his mouth and nose with the side of his shirt and walks over to the door wafting the dust away with the book he's holding, the collapsing rubble has completely blocked the doorway, he's trapped in his room with no way out, "Ooh, that's not good." he moans.

* * *

In the gate room, Secia stands slowly glancing around the room, the lifeless bodies of several marines lay scattered all around, a pulsing red warning light flashes in patterns along the walls as the alert siren continues to sound and echo in the air.

Sam is standing by the small narrow window looking down at the gate room from the global command room above, she sees Secia slowly tilt her head back to look up at her, when she sees Sam standing at the window she grins and lowers her eyebrows in a menacing manner, Secia suddenly looks away when Jack enters the room from the side entrance.

"Hey!" shouts Jack, standing and holding a powerful M60 machine gun.

As Secia turns around to face him he pulls the trigger and lets loose, a few moments later Teal'c enters and opens fire with his shotgun, when the shotgun is out of shells he tosses it aside and swings a P90 around from his back and fires, as they run out of ammo they try Zats and Staff weapons but despite shooting off thousands of rounds hitting their target dead on, it's done absolutely nothing to Secia, who just stands there.

"Alright...alright. Teal'c, T...stop." says Jack, seeing Teal'c still firing a Zat, "..Its not working." he adds, with a hint of anger and failure in his voice.

Teal'c lowers his Zat.

"Are you finished?." asks Secia, "Your weapons are so messy, extremely primitive and will do me no harm." she adds.

"Look, what the hell do you want?." replies Jack, frustrated.

"I want to go home." says Secia, she steps a little closer to them, "What do you want?." she asks.

Jack points to himself, "Me, what do I want...well lets see, world peace, my knee to stop aching every time it gets chilly, I wouldn't mind having my parking space back...and oh yeah..I want you to drop dead!." he says, "..you know what, just drop dead and forget everything else." he adds.

Secia's childish mind is a little amused by Jack's response, "I'll make you a deal, you give me what I want and I'll leave your world and withdraw my army." she proposes.

Jack glances at Teal'c, "Fine, what do you want?." he asks.

Secia just stares back at him and they all remain silent for a few moments.

"Well?." asks Jack, puzzled by the lack of response.

"Colonel Carter." says Teal'c.

Jack glances back and forth between Teal'c and Secia looking confused, "Excuse me?." he says.

"Colonel Carter is the one she wants, O'Neill." says Teal'c.

"Cart-...Sam?!." says Jack, he looks at Secia, "You want Sam?!" he asks, "Forget it." he says firmly.

"I will get what's rightfully mine." says Secia, responding firmly.

"Yeah, over my dead body. You stay away from her or I..." says Jack, getting angry at the mere thought of her getting close to Sam.

"What?, you'll what?. Do you really think you can stop me, your weapons can't hurt me." says Secia.

"Oh yeah. You hear that?." says Jack, focussing her attention on the automated voice of the base auto destruct countdown coming through the speakers, "In about 6 minutes this base and everything in it..including you..will be vaporised." he says.

"Including all of you." says Secia.

"If that is the way it must be. I will take great pleasure in watching you burn as we all die together. The people of this galaxy will be free and you will be able to hurt them no more." says Teal'c.

Secia narrows her eyes and then the sound of the creatures roars start to sound down the corridors, getting louder and louder as the creatures approach.

Teal'c looks back and down the corridor, "O'Neill, the creatures are approaching." he says.

"Crap!." says Jack, walking over to the lifeless bodies of the marines and taking their weapons and ammo and handing some to Teal'c.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy - Atlantis**

* * *

The city is under a relentless attack from the hundreds of remaining enemy ships all around it who keep circling around them, all the Jumpers have been destroyed with the loss of many members of the Atlantis team, including Ronon and Teyla, the last of the Jaffa, Tok'ra and Tulla ships helping in the fight fell just minutes ago, Atlantis is all that remains and as the power of the ZPM is quickly draining, they're only a few attacks away from complete destruction.

"I told you we need to leave now!." shouts Zelenka.

As the city is hit with constant weapons fire it rocks and sways, the shock waves are penetrating the weakened shield and causing the outer buildings that line the city to crumble and fall, the peak of the tower also being close to the shield perimeter has suffered damage as well, part of the tower by the Stargate has collapse leaving a big hole in the wall making space outside visible.

"And go where?!, we're out of Jumpers, Atlantis is no longer under control...we have nowhere to go." replies Sheppard, frustrated, he's a military man and his job is to defend against the enemy but there isn't a damn thing he can do about it.

Atlantis' alarms begin to sound, Zelenka turns to his console and sees the worst has happened, "The shield is failing...we won't survive the next attack." he says, turning back.

Knowing there's nothing they can they stand by the balcony railings looking out through the broken wall of the tower and watch helplessly in to the distance as a wave of enemy ships heads towards them, "It was a pleasure serving with you both." says Woolsey, looking at Sheppard and Zelenka before turning back to see his murderers approaching.

As they all hold on to the railings so tightly it cuts off the blood flow to their fingers and squeeze shut their eyes unable to watch their own demise, a few moments go by when the ships should have opened fire and they should all be dead, but nothing happened, opening their eyes one by one and realising they're alive.

"Is that it, are we dead?." asks Zelenka.

"I...don't feel dead." says Sheppard, slowly poking Woolsey's shoulder like in a dream to check he was real, "..you look alive to me." he adds.

"Where did they go?." asks Woolsey.

At that precise moment they hear a loud humming sound above them, followed by a roar like the sound of a jumbo jet passing overhead, as they look up and out of the hole in the tower wall they see the metallic underbelly of Destiny flying by them with all guns blazing, followed by several smaller Seed ships moving ahead and attacking the enemy.

"This is Atlantis." says Sheppard, grabbing his radio with surprise after hearing a voice come over it.

"Colonel Sheppard, is that you?." asks Mitchell.

"Yeah...who is this?." asks Sheppard.

"Its me, Mitchell. You didn't tell us you were having a party." replies Mitchell.

"Well consider yourselves invited, come on in." replies Sheppard, still surprised at their arrival.

On board Destiny, "Time to pull out the party poppers, Colonel." says Mitchell, standing on the bridge and turning to Colonel Young whose sat in the captains seat.

"Scott, Rush...fire everything we've got at those ships." says Young, he turns to Camille who is sitting at the communications console, "See if you contact Earth, let them know we've arrived." he says.

Now that Destiny has arrived back in the Milky Way, the odds have once again been evened out, and not a moment too soon, Atlantis was on its final breath and about to be destroyed, Destiny, the Seed ships and enemy ships now circle Atlantis like a swirling pool of water, moving in opposite directions in a chaotic fashion and mess of ships and weapons fire, the war once again rages on in what could be the deciding battle.

The USS Lincoln, which was crippled and the only ships to survive the first battle over Abydos, managed to get its engines back online and head back toward Earth, as it approached its sensors detected the battle now underway close to the planet but Captain Philips decided not to stop, the ships shields are offline and they have no weapons to fight with so stopping to join the fight would do no one any good, instead he drops the ship out of hyperspace behind the battle and pushes for Earth orbit.

* * *

**Stargate Command**

* * *

Daniel has been trapped in his research room for about 20 minutes, despite his best and exhaustive efforts to remove the rubble blocking the door and dig his way out, he's been unable to move enough to make any difference, all he's done is move rocks to reveal even bigger ones in his way, the ventilation system has also cut off which is thinning out the air and the dust from the dirt isn't helping matters.

He stands up in the middle of the room, arms on his hips and breathing heavily, wiping the sweat from his brow with his dirty cut hands he just happened to glance over to the corner of the room and he spots the cable of the intercom phone dangling from the wall, mentally bashing himself for not thinking of this earlier he rushes over and digs out the receiver from under the rubble and attempts to call for help.

"Come on, come on come on..." he says, holding the receiver to his ear desperately waiting for someone to answer, "..please pick it up...someone pick it up." he says.

Walter was in the control room locking out the systems and on his way up to Landry's office when he just made out the sound of the phone ringing on the wall over the sound of heavy gunfire coming from the gate room as Jack and Teal'c shoot the creatures swarming down the corridors.

"Oh thank God." says Daniel.

"Dr Jackson?." asks Walter.

"Yeah, yeah its me." says Daniel with a chuckle of relief, "..I need some help, I'm trapped in my research room, can you send someone down to help dig me out." he says.

"We're under attack Dr, the levels above have been overrun by these things. Just..just don't move I'll inform the General and try and get someone to help." replies Walter.

"No, no, no...Walter, my air is running out in here. You have to get me out...please." replies Daniel.

A creature is shot by the control room doorway but it's not completely dead and starts to clamber up the small steps towards Walter, he jumps and drops the phone before running off towards the stairs and up to the briefing room level.

"Walter?!...Walter?!" shouts Daniel over the phone, unaware of what's happening.

Realising that help probably won't be coming, his hand lowers going limp dropping the receiver on the floor, he then presses his back to the wall and slowly slides down it to a seated position knowing he doesn't have a chance, "Great." he moans.


	15. Devastation

**Stargate Command**

* * *

Teal'c and Jack have been battling against the swarms of creatures for some time now, the main concentration is coming at them from the left entrance but occasionally they fly in to the gate room from the other side, this makes it difficult for the two of them to hold them back, most of the other base personnel have either been killed or are trapped on other levels so backup is out of the question, they're managing to take down large concentrations of the creatures and they're starting to thin out but its hard work.

They have to constantly switch weapons and run around picking up clips of ammo scattered around the floor but its starting to quickly run out.

Jack is standing just outside the room into the corridor firing two P90's at the creatures, "Switch." he shouts when his ammo is low, alerting Teal'c that he needs to take over his position, "I need ammo." he adds.

As Teal'c steps in to the corridor with a Zat in one hand and a shotgun in the other, Jack runs to the back of the room and slides across the floor to some ammo that's scattered in the corner, as he frantically reloads his guns he hears Teal'c call out his name.

"Teal'c!" shouts Jack, seeing the creatures breaking through Teal'c weapons fire and attacking him scratching and clawing at his face and body.

Sam was watching from the global command room window above and banged on the window when she saw Teal'c being attacked, unable to stand there and do nothing she ran from the window to make her way down.

Jack swings around and gets to his feet, but before he can reach Teal'c two creatures push by him and enter the gate room, he falls on his back and following the creatures with the barrels of his guns he shoots them as they fly over him and kills them both, lifting his head up he sees Teal'c on the floor in the corridor with several creatures still swarming over him.

Teal'c is down, he isn't moving and his entire body is covered in large cuts from the creatures claws.

After he took out the two creatures, Jack turned and looked over in horror at his friend just laying there, getting to his feet he starts to run over to him, however, before he can get to him Secia picks up a piece of broken metal off the floor and throws it at Jack, it strikes and punctures his back, swinging his arms back in pain he loses balance and falls to the ground to the sound of Secia's heartless laughter behind him.

Secia walks over and stands next to him as he lays helplessly on the floor, "Does that hurt?." she asks, uncaringly.

"Sc*ew you!." replies Jack.

"Allow me to end your suffering." says Secia, bending down and ripping the metal shard from his back and holding it like a knife, she raises her arm ready to stab him with the shard, then just as she's about to lunge it in to Jack's back, she's grabbed on the wrist from behind.

Secia spins around and sees a woman standing there, "Who..." she says, then she's picked up slightly off the ground and flung against the far wall.

The woman who grabbed her was Vala, she found her way back to the SGC and some how made her way down to the gate room, when Secia recovers from being thrown at the wall she lifts herself up on her hands and knees, looking at her wrist she sees it hard and grey, it has in fact been turned to stone.

Secia looks at Vala in shock, she clearly knows what has happened to her hand, something from her past, she's seen this before, after some how healing her hand she pushes herself up to her feet and steps over to Vala.

"Hedusa?" says Secia, looking her up and down.

Daniel had believed that the Gorgon that possessed Vala was one from Greek legends and quite possibly Medusa, however, wherever she originally came from she had a different name, possibly her true name, Hedusa.

"Hello, Secia." replies Vala (speaking as Hedusa).

"It is you." says Secia, wide eyed with surprise, "..but you were.." she adds, shaking her head but interrupted.

"I survived." says Vala.

"That's great, I never thought I would see..." says Secia, appearing to lean in for a hug.

Vala bashes her arms away, "Don't touch me!." she says firmly.

While Vala and Secia stand talking at the other end of the gate room, Sam comes running around the corner, thankfully the remaining creatures have retreated away, she sees Jack and kneels beside him on the floor.

"Jack." she says with worry, holding his hand and rubbing the back of his head.

Jack blinks his eyes open and looks at her, "Oh Sam..." he says.

"I'm here." says Sam.

"Teal'c?!" asks Jack.

Sam shakes her head, the odd tear forming in her eyes and running down her cheeks, "He didn't make it." she says.

"You need to go...get out of here." says Jack.

Sam shakes her head again, there's no way she's going to leave him there, "We'll leave together." she says, trying to lift him up, "..come on." she says.

Jack cries out in pain, "No, stop...stop...ouch!. God." he moans, taking deep painful breaths, "..I can't move, Sam. I think she severed my spine, I can't feel my legs." he says.

Sam looks around and sees Vala, she's unaware of who or what Vala is or what they're talking about but she does know that she just stood up against Secia and that's a good sign, "Vala, help me please." she shouts.

"I'm going home, Hedusa, you can come with, we can go together." says Secia.

"Our home is gone." says Vala.

"No, no they're here I know it, they made it just like you." replies Secia.

"What, you think they're just going to welcome you with open arms. After what you did...they don't want you Secia." says Vala, she leans in towards her nose to nose, "No one wants you!." she says.

Vala's comments appear to effect Secia as if hurtful, "I'm going home...with or without you." she replies with an angry tone, then she steps back once again narrowing her eyes and glaring menacingly at Vala.

The roar of Secia's creatures is once again heard coming through the corridors, "They're coming back." says Sam, trying desperately to move Jack.

* * *

**USS Lincoln**

* * *

The ship is in Earth orbit and they've been trying to get in contact with someone in command on the surface but are having little success, they've made contact with a few small groups of marines but information is sketchy and no one truly knows what exactly is going on in terms of who is giving the orders, the ship is manned by only a few surviving crew members so getting everything operational has been difficult.

"What about the White House, Pentagon, ground forces..there must be someone out there we can contact." says Cpt Philips.

"Sorry Sir, nothing." says Lt Parker, whose been given the job of communications officer.

Philips turns to Jessica, ships engineer sitting at the console on his right, "Can you boost the signal?." he asks.

"There's nothing wrong with the array, Sir. It's just no one is answering our broadcasts." replies Jessica, "I've patched in to an orbiting sensor satellite, we could run a scan and check for life signs in bases of operations." she adds.

"Do it." says Philips.

Jessica runs a scan of every known facility on Earth, "I'm picking up several hundred personal locators, some at the Pentagon, Area 51, Stargate Command and some appear to be in the Atlantic ocean, possibly a submarine." she says.

"Identifications?." asks Philips.

"Yes Sir, but Sir...bio readings indicate that most of them are deceased. I'm only detecting a small amount with readable life-signs...and a lot of them are weak." replies Jessica.

"Can we get the transporters online?." asks Philips.

Jessica bites her bottom lip in thought, "It'll take me a few minutes." she replies.

"All right get to it." orders Philips.

* * *

As Sam tries desperately to move Jack, he pulls her arm off of his sleeve, he then reaches out and caresses the side of her face, "Leave me. Get out of here, just go." he says, thinking only of her safety and that of their unborn child.

Sam scrambles to her feet, "Vala." she shouts, walking towards her.

Upon hearing Sam's voice behind her, Vala suddenly punches Secia to the floor and reaches around and grabs Sam by the collar of her jacket and hoists her off the ground, "Vala, what are you doing, let go of me." says Sam.

Then without any interaction the Stargate lights up and activates forming a connection to God knows where, Sam watched as the Stargate opened and then as she looks in Vala's eyes she can sense what is about to happen.

"No..." pleads Sam, shaking her head and trying to unclasp Vala's fingers from her jacket, "..don't do this!." she says.

Jack, using his hands and elbows managed to turn himself around on the floor to see, "Put her down." he shouts, he's in an unbelievable amount of pain as he desperately attempts to reach out for a gun laying on the floor ahead of him but it's just out of his reach.

Secia recovers from the punch she received and is laying on the floor on her side when she looks up and sees what's happening, "Hedusa!" she says.

Vala looks at Secia, "You're never going home." she says, then looks in to Sam's eyes, "Good luck." she says.

Secia spots the open Stargate and like Sam she realises what she's about to do, Sam is her only way home, it's what all of this killing has been about and she can't lose her now, Vala pulls her arms backwards and then springs forward and throws Sam at the open Stargate, Secia scrambles to her feet, "Nooooooo.." she screams.

As Jack watches helplessly as Sam is tossed through the air, it's as if time itself has ground to a near complete standstill, he's watching his worst fear unfold in slow motion, as Sam's body twists around in the air, Jack and Sam's eyes lock and never break apart, every emotion and every thought flows through their minds in an instant, Secia's screams and the sounds of her creatures are blocked out, nothing can break Sam and Jack's bond right now, its as if they're the only two people in the universe.

As Sam's body enters and disappears in to the event horizon and the gate deactivates, Jack, who had his arm extended out in a knowingly futile attempt to grab her, gently lowers his arm and head to the ground, tears of pain but more of sadness begin to flow down his face.

- "_Sixty seconds until self destruct._" sounds over the base speakers.

"Now my host wants you to suffer." says Vala, turning to face Secia once again.

"Your host, why?" asks Secia, "I don't know her." she adds.

"You killed my daughter." says Vala (speaking as herself), and once again punching Secia, "Her name was Adria." she says.

Vala turns around when the creatures fly around the corner, she extends her arm once again creating a field around her body, as the creatures enter and touch the field they're instantly turned to stone and crash and crumble as they hit the surrounding walls of the gate room.

* * *

**USS Lincoln**

* * *

Jessica was tasked with repairing the Asgard transporter array which she has now completed, "Transporters are running, Sir." she says, swiftly walking back on to the bridge and taking her seat at the console.

"Proceed." order Cpt Philips.

"Uhm, where...where should I beam them too Sir?." asks Jessica.

"Transport them to the infirmary, members of the crew with medical training are waiting for them." says Philips.

"Yes Sir. Commencing transport." replies Jessica, locking on to personal locator signals, she turns her head and nods, "It's done Sir." she says.

Captain Philips reaches to the arm of his chair and pushes the comms button, "Infirmary, do you have them?." he asks.

"Yes Captain, 18 count." replies Lt Cole.

"18?" questions Philips, looking at Jessica for a response, he thought they would be more.

"They were the only ones with life-signs Sir." replies Jessica, then the sensors beep an alert, "Sir, I'm detecting a massive explosion...Cheyenne Mountain, it's Stargate command." she says.

"Are they under attack?." asks Philips.

"No Sir. The explosion came from underground." replies Jessica.


	16. Last man standing

Secia's attack on Earth and the SGC was halted by the arrival of Vala, who was actually host to a Gorgon called Hedusa (aka Medusa), Vala had the ability to temporarily harm Secia and prevented her from getting her hands on what she wanted, Vala threw Sam in to the connected Stargate to an unknown destination to Jack's horror who was crippled on the floor of the gate room unable to do anything to help her.

The USS Lincoln managed to transport survivors carrying locator chips from Earth up to the ship, unfortunately it appears they were too late to save most of them and only managed to rescue 18 people from various locations around the planet, they also detected a huge explosion at the SGC as the self destruct was set off and destroyed the entire base and vaporising everything and every one with it.

They detected thousands more human life signs on Earth but they were coming from hot spots and the heavy weapons fire was interfering with their ability to transport, as a result they're unable to rescue them and the ship wouldn't be big enough to hold them all.

If they couldn't move the survivors on Earth out of harms way then at the very least they could help defend it against the enemy, as the survivors in the infirmary are treated for their injuries, Cpt Philips had altered the ships course and headed back to join the other ships in battle, their limited shields and weaponry means there's little they can do but they'll give it all they've got.

Daniel was trapped in his research room at the SGC but he was implanted with a locator ship a few years ago and was lucky enough to be transported on the USS Lincoln with the other survivors, his injuries have been treated and he's regained consciousness, his first thought when waking up was to seek out his friends, moving from bed to bed in the infirmary he couldn't find any of them, he decided to make his way to the bridge to see the captain.

* * *

The ship is on the outer edge of the battle zone, in the ships present condition they need to keep their distance from the heavy weapons fire but remain close enough so they can join the fight, the ship isn't receiving direct hits but the shock waves from explosions are causing the ship to shake on occasion.

"Captain." shouts Daniel as he steps on to the bridge with his arm in a sling.

"Dr Jackson, good to see you're all right." says Philips, "..fire on the stranglers, try to keep them from going back in to formation." he adds.

"Yes Sir." replies Lt Parker.

"Thank you." replies Daniel.

"Dr Jackson, we could use the help if you know how to use the targeting systems." says Philips.

"Uhm no sorry. Listen, I'm looking for my friends...my..my team, from the SGC have you seen or heard from them?." asks Daniel.

Cpt Philips and Jessica share a look of dread, realising they have to tell him the bad news, Philips stands and goes over to him, "Sorry Dr Jackson, the bases self destruct went off shortly after we beamed you onboard." he explains.

Daniel is shocked by the news and doesn't want to accept it, "Well maybe they weren't in the base, I was trapped in my room for a couple of hours without any communications, they could have gotten out to the surface or...or...they could have used the Stargate and gone off world somewhere.." he says.

"The locator chips, the ones in your arm that we use to locate and beam you onboard, they have unique identifications so we can tell whose who. Your friends, Teal'c, Colonel O'Neill, Vala, General Landry...they were all detected within the mountain...but they had no life signs." says Jessica.

Daniel looks distraught, unable to take it in.

"I'm sorry, Dr Jackson." says Philips.

"Sam!" blurts Daniel, "..what about Sam, you didn't mention Sam, where's Sam?!." he asks.

"The sensor logs did pick up her chip but we lost the signal, it could have been damaged." replies Jessica.

Daniel holds his head like he has a bad headache and clearly in shock.

"You should be in the infirmary." says Philips, "Lieutenant, will you help him to the infirmary please." he adds.

As they're heading back to the infirmary, a violent jolt shakes the ship and unbalances everyone on board, Daniel is knock against a wall while the Lieutenant walking beside him is thrown forward on to the floor, emergency alarms are sounding and just behind Daniel a large panel falls away from the wall and a large fireball bellows out for a few seconds and then dissipates.

Daniel tries to make his way back to the way he came to find out what's going on, just as he steps on to the bridge he looks around and out of the window he sees an enemy ship closing in fast, then a second later it crashes right through the hull and through the window with the force of the blast knocking him backwards several feet on to his back.

* * *

**Destiny**

* * *

It seems the enemy has taken a new tactic, instead of circling around in an endless cycle of dodge and shoot they're going ballistic and flying their ships directly in to Destiny and Atlantis and causing a massive amount of damage in the process, most of the ships are being stopped by their shields but as the shields fluctuate from the impacts, some ships are managing to get through and crash in to them.

"Rush, what the hell is going on?!" asks Colonel Young.

"It's a kamikaze run." replies Rush.

A violent shake is felt as one of the ships strikes them.

"One of our turrets is down." says Mitchell.

"Can't we shoot them as they come through the shield?!" asks Young.

Mitchell shakes his head, "They're too quick, not enough time to get a fix on them." he says.

The Seeds ships are being attacked as well, unfortunately they don't have shields as powerful as those on Destiny and the enemy isn't holding back, four of the Seed ships have already been destroyed.

"Just keep firing!." orders Young.

* * *

**Atlantis**

* * *

The city has been targeted just like the other ships but their shields were already weak and ready to fail, Zelenka managed to narrow the shield to encompass the tower but it's left the rest of the city completely vulnerable to attack, a large section of the city has already broken away and over half the city has been blown to pieces.

"One more hit and that's it for us." says Woolsey.

"We're not going to survive this no matter what." says Sheppard.

Woolsey looks at him, they're not exactly best friends or spend much personal time together, but in the time they've spent working with each other they've come to know each other quite well and they both know what the other is thinking.

"We may as well...what else can we do." says Sheppard.

"What?" asks Zelenka.

"We're screwed either way." says Sheppard.

"What?" asks Zelenka, again, he doesn't share their apparent psychic abilities.

"We destroy the city ourselves." says Woolsey.

"What?!" asks Zelenka.

Despite the best efforts of the Jaffa, Tok'ra, Tulla, Atlantis and the Destiny fleet, the shocking realisation is that they're not going to win this war, the population of Earth has already been virtually wiped out, city's and towns in countries across the globe are in ruins as its just getting worse as the creatures continue their attacks, any chance of victory has long gone.

"We destroy the city." says Woolsey.

Zelenka doesn't like that idea but at this point they don't really have any other choice, they have no weapons and no control so there's nothing else they can do, he figures is a better alternative than just waiting around to die, he thinks about how he could do it.

"All right, the ZPM is almost depleted so an overload is impossible. If I can remove the fail safes and channel the power directly in to the Stargate the reaction with he Naquadah would creates an explosion of sufficient size to destroy the city and anything within a large radius." says Zelenka.

"How long do you need, Doctor?." asks Woolsey.

"A few minutes, its a fairly simple process...but we would need to drop the shields in order to do it which means we will suffocate before the explosion occurs." replies Zelenka.

"Understood. Do what you need to do." says Woolsey.

* * *

**USS Lincoln**

* * *

The ships was struck head on by an enemy ship that crashed right through the hull of the bridge, Daniel was thrown several feet through the air when the ship collided with them, he regains consciousness and looks around, the massive hull breach is causing the ship to decompress, the air is being sucked out in to space as such a speed it feels like a gale force wind is blowing through the halls.

Daniel pulls himself around on the floor using parts of the walls to grip on to, with wind blowing in his eyes he looks in to the broken bridge and sees the front of an enemy ship where the consoles use to be, he sees Jessica pulling herself around the corner of the doorway and the faint sound of her calling his name over the sound of the air suction.

He wiggles over and reaches out and grabs her hand, "Hold on!" he shouts, a brief jolt rocks the ship and Jessica loses her grip on the door, hanging on to each other Jessica's body is now floating in the air by the force of the air being sucked out of the hull.

"Pull yourself towards me." shouts Daniel, "I can't hold you!." he adds.

A tiny explosion from underneath the enemy ship scares them both, the force of it causes Jessica to lose her grip on Daniel and she is swept out of the hull in to the vacuum of space, Daniel squeezes his eyes shut and turns his head unable to watch as she screams, "God." he says in shock.

Using the walls for grip he pulls through the halls of the ship battling the winds sweeping through, the sudden drop in oxygen make it hard to breath and he starts to feel dizzy as he gets to a corner, pausing for a moment while trying desperately to catch a breath he looks around trying to find a way out, through his blurred vision has makes out a sign on a door just ahead of him and makes his way towards it.

Pushing the open button next to the door he then steps in to the doorway with a hand on either side propping himself up, he looks around again and finds the ring transport control panel and proceeds to enter an activation sequence, his blurred vision from the lack of oxygen makes it difficult to see and his movement is sluggish but he manages it, as he pushes the final button to activate the rings he pushes himself away from the panel and in to the middle of the room just as the rings activate.

He appears inside a new room, as he lays on the floor looking around and barely conscious the design and architecture of the room is unfamiliar to him, he sees a blurred figure approach him, its a girl, its Llula of the Elf race.

"Daniel. Daniel." says Llula, trying to get his attention.

As Daniel loses consciousness, Llula has to leave him when she hears her ships alarm sounding.

The enemy ships continue their ballistic attacks and things go from bad to worse for the crew of Destiny, the enemy ships take out more of the Seed ships but one of them isn't destroyed but simply knocked off course and its heading straight for Destiny.

"Move us away from here." shouts Young.

Scott is at the flight controls but they're not accepting any input, each time he tries to enter a command it flashes up a warning, "I can't, controls are locked out!." he replies.

More enemy ships penetrate their shield and crash in to Destiny, shaking the ship and damaging more and more systems.

"Uhm we've got a problem here!" shouts Mitchell with urgency, he points out of the window at the Seed ship that is approaching them at an angle from above.

"Rush, do something." shouts Young.

"What would you have me do, Colonel. The systems are dead, we have no longer have control." replies Rush.

All the crew can do now is stand and watch as the Seed ship plummets towards them, because the Seed ship is of Ancient design it passes straight through their shields and then strikes the hull, it cuts through the front beak of the ship literally slicing Destiny in half in an impact of crushed, broken and twisted metal before it explodes, which then sets off a chain reaction that explodes through the entire ship and blowing Destiny to pieces from the inside out.

Woolsey, Zelenka and Sheppard witnessed the whole thing as they looked out in to space.

"Jeesh-" says Sheppard.

Woolsey turns to Zelenka, "Are you ready Doctor?!" he asks.

"Yes the program is ready." replies Zelenka.

"Then do it now!." orders Woolsey with desperation, realising that the blast wave from Destiny is heading their way and if it hits them they won't be able to go through with their plan.

Zelenka activates his self destruct program, as he pushes the button the shields deactivate and expose them all to space, as gravity on board Atlantis is lost their bodies slowly begin to float.

The power from the ZPM is channelled directly in to the Stargate, it gradually begins to hum louder and louder as the power is fed in to it, more power than it was designed to handle which causes the Naquadah the gate is made of to become unstable, the gate glows orange for several seconds like its on fire, then moments later it explodes.

The resulting explosion is comparable to 100 nuclear bombs all going off at once, the blast destroys Atlantis and all the enemy ships that were swarming around it and in the immediate area are vaporised, the blast also destroyed what was left of the USS Lincoln, and takes out a very large chunk of the Moon as it dissipates a short distance from Earth.

* * *

A while later, Daniel who fled from the USS Lincoln using the transport rings and ended up on board another ship regains consciousness, his body jumps up to a seated position like he had just had a bad dream, he looks around confused about where he is and what's going on.

"You're awake." says Llula, standing in the middle of the doorway to the room.

Daniel quickly looks over upon hearing her voice, "Llula?" he says, wondering why she's there.

"How are you feeling?." asks Llula.

Daniel shakes his head trying to get some bearings on what's going on, "Very erm...confused. Where are we?." he says, standing up.

Llula runs over and props him up when he nearly falls over, "Take it easy. You're on my ship. My ship was damaged in the initial battle and I barely got away, I've been stuck here for hours trying to make repairs. The rings transport beam must have locked on to my ship when you activated them." she says.

"How long was I out?." asks Daniel.

"A couple of hours." replies Llula.

As Llula helps him slowly walk out of the room, Daniel looks up and sees through the bridge window and sees loads of rocks floating in space, "Where the hell are we?." he asks.

Llula doesn't need to answer that question because when they get closer to the window, Daniel stands and stares in disbelief when he see Earth in the distance off to the side, he realises the rocks he's seeing are from the Moon and there isn't a single ship friendly or otherwise anywhere to be seen, he has the shocking realisation that they're all dead.


	17. The last of us

Secia's army of transformed ascended beings spread through the galaxy like a plague, killing everyone and everything in their path, why she was so hell bent on causing so much destruction and suffering is still unclear.

Earth appeared to be her main target, when she finally got through their defences she unleashed her army on the world and within a matter of days the entire population was wiped out, billions of lives lost, entire continents reduced to rubble, Atlantis, Destiny and our allied fleets tried their best to fend her off, but it wasn't to be, the war was lost, everything was lost.

In the end only a single solitary ship remained, Llula's ship, with Daniel on board.

Daniel and Llula remained in Earth orbit for a number of ours, trying to fix her ship and hoping to get in contact with someone on the ground, anyone.

A few hours after the space battle ended with the loss of all ships and crew members, they were witness to a catastrophic event, the Stargate's that were surrounding Earth activated once again, this time rays of energy shot through them towards the planet, it turned out to be a powerful weapon of some kind because within minutes Earth was gone, blasted and exploded to oblivion.

Daniel and Llula eventually repaired their ship and headed out in to space to join the refugees in Pegasus, unfortunately when they arrived they discovered they were too late, most of the planets that should have been there had been destroyed, they continued moving forward and picked up a couple of survivors along the way.

They encountered a few of Secia's ships on occasion, scattered around galaxies, fighting them off as best they could but due to a lack of weapons all they could really do was run away or be destroyed, for a few months they travelled through space looking for a place to settle and find food and water, but it just felt like they were on a journey that would never end, constantly on alert and fearing for their lives.

* * *

Llula walks around to Daniel's makeshift room on board the ship when she hears his voice coming from inside, she sees him sitting by a table with various equipment and technology spread across it and no one else is in the room.

"Daniel?!" she asks, gently trying to get his attention.

Daniel turns around, "Hello, hi. J-Just a second." he replies, he turns back around and speaks in to a microphone...

"...I leave this and all our combined knowledge, research, technology and history in the hope that one day our species will live again, and to ensure the people that once populated the universe will never be forgotten...My name is Dr Daniel Jackson, last known survivor of the Human race."

Then he turns around again just as Llula walks over and stands beside him, "What is all this for?." she asks.

"I'm building a memory bank, time capsule type of thing." says Daniel.

"Why are you building it?." asks Llula, picking up and inspecting pieces of equipment from the table.

"Well, I thought we'd better leave something behind that shows that we were here, that we existed...you know." replies Daniel, "..we've been travelling for weeks, the hand full of people on this ship are probably all that's left. We're the last of us." he adds.

"It's possible that more people survived." says Llula.

"No Humans. " replies Daniel, with a touch of sadness in his eyes.

In the months that Daniel and Llula have spent together on their tiny ship, they've formed bond, it's not a romantic relationship but there is closeness between them, Llula's race was wiped out several years previously, she understands what it's like to feel alone.

Llula stands behind him and leans over placing her arms over his shoulders and around his neck in a comforting hold, "We'll get through this, Daniel. Stay positive." she says.

Nupir, a surviving Tulla they rescued a few months ago speaks over the ships comms, "Captain to the bridge please." he says, in a high pitched voice like he's inhaled helium.

Daniel and Llula giggle, Nupir's voice has always made them smile, "What is it?." asks Llula.

"We're receiving a distress call." replies Nupir.

This is the first sign of life they've encountered in weeks, Llula and Daniel are up on their feet and out of the room in an instant, "On our way!." replies Llula.

* * *

The ship exits hyperspace, they've travelled for so long and so far that they're now in a galaxy they've never been too before, its a completely unknown region of space, as the ship slows after exiting hyperspace off in the distance they see a large planet with two small moons, from a distance it looks similar to most other planets they've encountered, large open oceans with lots of green land mass.

Daniel and Llula run on to the bridge of the ship, slightly out of breath and look out of the window, Nupir is standing at the main controls.

"What do you have?." asks Llula.

"We are at the coordinates of the distress call." replies Nupir.

"A ship?." says Daniel.

"I'm not detecting any ships in the area, I believe the signal originated from the planets surface." replies Nupir.

"Play back the distress call." says Llula.

Nupir plays back the transmission they received, its a little garbled and full of static but they can make out a voice...

"_Req-esting assista-ce. We're under at-ack...pow-rf-ll...k-lling...St—g-te. Following coordinat-s, please h-lp us...we're un—r at-ck. Help us._"

They can understand parts of the message, clearly someone asking for help who are under attack, however, they can't see or detect any ships or other possible threats in the immediate area, they could be under attack on the planets surface.

Llula opens communications, "This is the Elf ship Pixie, calling whoever broadcast the distress call. We're here to help, please respond." she says.

She sends the message a couple of times but gets no reply, it could be a trap and the signal could be the bait, "What do you think?." she asks, turning to Daniel.

"We should check it out." replies Daniel.

"Take us in to planetary orbit, but slowly." says Llula.

* * *

**Location Unknown**

* * *

As she opened her eyes she thought she was blind, then tiny traces of light blurred in to her vision, her entire body was aching, she could barely move any part of her body as it felt numb and tense, so much so that she initially thought she was paralysed.

Then as a little strength began to return and her veins tickled with feeling, she could move her fingers and could feel a dry dusty ground beneath her, she tried to sit up but the muscle pulling pain was unbearable.

Gently lifting her head as much as she could bear, she looked around and found a blinding source of light a short distance away, squinting her eyes as her vision focussed through, then she heard a footstep and a dark shadow stepped in front of her gaze and blocked out the light.

She tried to move in a fearful reaction but she's too weak, "No, no, stay away." moans Sam.

"Please, don't be afraid." says a female voice, reaching out and taking hold of Sam's arms as she desperately tries to wiggle away.

"Stay away, get off of me..." cries Sam, she feels extremely vulnerable in her weakened state.

"I will not harm you." says the woman.

"What do you want?" asks Sam.

The woman lets go of Sam's hands and reaches around for a bottle, Sam hears the sound of water sloshing, she licks her dry chapped thirsting lips, "Its water, drink." says the woman as she tips the bottle to Sam's lips and Sam drinks it very quickly, she grabs the bottle herself and tips it further as she guzzles it down quickly with it pouring out of the sides of her mouth like its the first drink she's had in weeks.

Sam places her hand on her stomach, rubbing her baby bump and feeling hungry, the woman holds out her hand holding what looks like a piece of tree root, "It is food. Eat." she says.

Sam takes the root and after a brief hesitation she takes a large bite out of it.

"Feeling better?." asks the woman.

Continuing to eat, Sam looks at the woman still unsure of what to make of her, "Where am I?." she asks.

Now that Sam appears to have calmed down a little, the woman shuffles herself on her knees to a more comfortable position, "You're on Hesperia." she says, then she glances around, "Well, what's left of it at least." she adds.

"Hesperia?, I've never heard of it." replies Sam.

"No, not many have." says the woman.

"How did I get here?." asks Sam.

"You came through the ring. You were unconscious and close to death when I found you, I brought you back here and watched over you." says the woman.

Sam's initial reaction was to fear her, but now realising she probably saved her life she feels less afraid, "How long have I been here?." she asks, wiping her mouth.

"Eighty-Six days." replies the woman.

"Eighty-Six days?!." replies Sam in shock, "I have to get back, my planet, they're in trouble." she adds, struggling to lift herself up off the floor.

The woman leans across and prevents her from getting up, "You must remain still until you're strength returns to you." she says.

"You don't understand, Earth is under attack." moans Sam.

"Remain still." says the woman.

Sam doesn't have the strength to argue, she gives up and lays back down puffing and panting, "Do you have a name?." she asks.

"Anesidora."


	18. Never dying

After receiving a call for help by someone claiming to be under attack, the Pixie wasted little time in getting to the coordinates of the signals origin, when they arrived they couldn't find any signs of a battle or any ships in the immediate vicinity, figuring the signal must have come from a nearby planet they headed for the planet directly ahead of their position, trying to figure out where the garbled distress call came from, who sent it and why.

As the Pixie enters planetary orbit, they can see the surface of the planet a little more clearly and noticed a lot of darkened areas that looked like scorched earth and lots of thick smoke clouds.

"Something definitely happened here, you see all that." says Daniel, pointing at the scorched landscape below.

"Yes." replies Llula, "Can you detect any activity on the surface, ships or anything?." she asks.

Nupir runs an extensive sensor sweep of the planet, "No, nothing. No detectable life-sings or movement of any kind. There's no one on the planet." he replies.

"Well there has to be someone...look, there's a city down there." says Daniel, noticing an area on the surface that is quite obviously a sign of civilization, a large concentration of buildings.

Llula suddenly leans on the consoles to focus her vision through the window, "What's that?." she says after seeing a strange blinking light on the surface, like a piece of glass catching the light of the Sun.

"Can we land this thing?." ask Daniel, wanting to investigate.

"Our hull has not been fully repaired, the ship would not survive an atmospheric entry." says Nupir.

"We don't need to land.." says Llula, moving around and taking a seat next to Nupir at the console, "..I may be able to magnify the image." she adds.

"You can do that?." asks Daniel.

"My ship can do a lot of things, Daniel, but most of her main systems were damaged back in Milky Way, I may be able to get the observation systems back online though as they're not tied in to anything critical..give me a minute." replies Llula.

Llula successfully manages to get the observation systems back online, now she's able to use them and activate the HUD which they use to magnify areas of the planet, as with their naked eye they see miles and miles of scorched earth, the city and outlying villages and towns have clearly been attacked by something, signs of explosions and vehicle wreckage around the fields but no people and no animals.

Daniel is watching closely as the HUD image sweeps across the surface, "Hold it..hold it..um..go back." he shouts after spotting movement, "There. Zoom in there." he says, "..again." he says when the image isn't close enough.

"Is that someone walking on the path?." asks Llula.

They stand and watch from a birds-eye-view as someone walks along a long narrow path away from the city, then the person appears to stop, then they slowly raise their head and look to the skies.

Daniel stands in disbelief, "Oh you've got to be f***ing kidding me." he says.

Secia is standing on the surface and looking up directly at them as if she knows they're there and watching her, then the HUD malfunctions and goes offline.

"A wormhole has been detected on the surface." alerts Nupir.

"That's Secia, I don't know how she survived but we have to stop her...we can't let her get away." says Daniel, sounding angry and desperate.

"That is not all, I'm also detecting a large build up of energy emanating from within the wormhole." says Nupir.

Llula looks at the readings, "Its the same energy signature created by the Stargate's around Earth just before it was blown up. Get us out of here now!." she orders.

Firing up the engines and turning the ship 180 degrees, Nupir pilots the Pixie as fast as he can away from the planet, as the energy emanating through the Stargate quickly builds up behind them, the main engines charge and come online, Nupir presses the hyperspace activation button in an instant and the ship enters hyperspace, at this point the energy on the planet reaches critical levels and the planet explodes.

The resulting shock wave from the explosion rapidly expands out in to surrounding space, the Pixie was able to get far enough away and they catch the tail end of the shock wave which destabilises their engines and throws them violently out of hyperspace back in to normal space with a badly damaged rear hull with smoke trailing behind them.

* * *

**Hesperia: Location Unknown**

* * *

Sam had woken up in a strange place, she was laying on the floor of a cave, hurt and in a lot of pain, she was saved by a woman called Anesidora who found here laying on the ground close to death, after getting over her initial fear of the woman, Sam found out she'd been there for a few months and she desperately wanted to get back to Earth but she was too weak, after resting for a few more days she's started to get some of her strength back and is eager to get moving again.

Sam tries to stand up on her own but her ankle is hurt, she shuffles through a pile of wooden sticks on the ground in front of her, they were used for kindling to build a fire to keep warm through the cold nights, luckily some was unused and she finds a large piece perfect for use as a walking stick to help her move about.

As she hops and wobbles over the cave entrance, she quickly places her arm in front of her eyes and turns her head as the blinding light of the sun burns her eyes, she's been inside the cave for days and her eyes need time to adjust.

"What are you doing." says Anesidora, returning to the cave and seeing Sam standing at the entrance, "Are you all right?." she asks, leaning in to check.

"I'm fine, its just my eyes...the light." replies Sam.

Sam eventually looks back outside squinting as her eyes adjust to the change of light, blinking as her vision clears, she sees Anesidora in front of her, "I'm fine, I'm OK." she says.

"You really shouldn't be on your feet yet. Here let me help you." says Anesidora, holding Sam and leading her over to a large boulder a few feet away so she can sit down.

Sam jumps briefly as she sits down, "Ouw, that's hot." she says, gently lowering herself down on to the boulder that's been heated from the sunlight glaring down from above, she looks around taking a look at her surroundings and all she sees in every direction is dirt, the landscape is a virtual desert, can't see any trees or vegetation or bodies of water anywhere, just miles of dirt and rock and the cave she came out of in the middle of an even bigger rock.

Then her eyes catch the sight of a large ring in the distance and glistening in the sunlight, its a Stargate but not the usual design, she knows almost immediately that the gate she's looking at is the same white gate with strange symbols that she saw when they encountered the artificial intelligence known as Nym a couple of months back.

"Did I come through that?." asks Sam, pointing at the ring.

"Yes, I found you just a few meters away." replies Anesidora, sitting on the rock next to Sam.

Sam squeezes her eyes tightly when she has a flashback, the memory comes back to her of Vala picking her up and throwing her through the Stargate, "Which galaxy are we in right now?." she asks.

Anesidora shakes her head, "I don't know what it is called." she says.

"All right, well...where is everyone, this planet looks dead, there's nothing here." ask Sam, confused and with lots of questions.

"You're correct, Hesperia died a very long time ago. I am the only person here...well..we are the only ones here now." replies Anesidora.

Sam noticed that Anesidora seemed a little sad and uneasy when answering her question, she doesn't want to pry, especially as this is the woman who saved her life, she doesn't want to push and maybe hurt her feelings, but she needs answers, "What happened?." she asks.

"There was a war, between two races who were fighting for control of a great power, the war lasted for centuries and innocent people got stuck in the middle of it and were even forced to take part in the bloodbath..."

Anesidora pauses and slowly stands to take a breath and looking out over the baron landscape, "...I couldn't take it any more, too many people had needlessly died and too much had been lost, I ended the war myself." she explains.

"You, how?." asks Sam.

"I removed the reason for the war, I destroyed the power source. When the war ended, my people despised me for what I had done, hated me for it, a short time later they all left and Hesperia was left to die, but not before they punished me for my actions." says Anesidora.

Sam shakes her head, "What was the punishment?." she asks.

"To remain on Hesperia until I die." replies Anesidora.

"How long have you been here?." asks Sam.

Anesidora swallows a lump in her throat, "Several million years." she says.

Sam quickly jumps up to a standing position, "What?!" she asks in shock, "How is that possible, you said they left you here to die." she adds.

"But I can't die, _THAT_ is my punishment." replies Anesidora.

Sam starts to get a headache and rubs her head in confusion, "I ...I don't understand any of this.." she says.

Anesidora rushes forward and props her up when Sam suddenly feels faint and almost falls over, she sees a dark cloud in the distance and brief sound of thunder, "Come on you need to rest. There's a storm coming, we should get back anyway." she says, helping Sam back to the cave.

* * *

**Pixie**

* * *

The Pixie was damaged by the shock wave from the exploding planet they so very nearly got away from, hitting their ship it threw them out of hyperspace and crippled them in space, the systems and part of the ships hull were badly damaged, they remained floating dead in space for a number of hours in complete darkness while they tried desperately to repair the ship.

Daniel is in the engine room in the dark, bent down and reaching around inside an open panel on the wall, he suddenly leaps back after connecting a cable and sparks explode out of it, "Jeesh, ouch!" he shouts after getting a shock.

"Good job, Daniel." says Llula from the bridge over the ships coms when the internal lights flicker back to life.

Daniel walks over to the coms panel and pushes the button to speak, "Is the power back online?." he asks.

"Yes." replies Llula.

"I'm no good at this stuff you know." says Daniel, sucking his slightly burnt finger, "I'm an archaeologists for crying out loud." he moans to himself as he heads for the bridge.

Eventually, after a lot of work they manage to get most of their systems up and running again and have sealed off sections of the ship where the hull damage occurred and are unfortunately unable to repair, at least they can pilot the ship and won't die in the blackness of space, they've taken the ship back towards the destroyed planet to see if they can figure out what happened.

"Take it easy." says Llula, as Nupir pilots the ship through a debris field of broken chunks of planet, it's dense and the some scrape and hit the hull as they move through it.

"Just...more destruction." says Daniel, looking out of the window and remembering Earth being destroyed in front of his eyes.

They suddenly see a bright flash of light way off in the distance, followed by another one moments later.

"What was that?." asks Daniel.

"The light pattern is consistent with an explosion." says Nupir.

Llula takes the sensor controls, "I'm getting the same energy signature as before...its her isn't it?." she asks.

"More than likely she went through the gate before blowing up the planet." replies Daniel, turning around and facing the back wall in frustration.

"Why is she doing this, there's no one left to oppose her." says Llula.

Daniels posture stiffens with a sudden realisation, "Sam." he says, spinning around to face the window once again.

"What?" asks Llula.

"Its Sam. When I was transported to the USS Lincoln they told me that they detected Sam's personal locator but then it disappeared with no trace, they said it could have malfunctioned but what if it didn't...what if Sam escaped!?" says Daniel, in a excitable manner.

Llula just sits and stares back at him, she has no idea what his point is meant to be.

"Secia came to Earth because she wanted Sam, I don't know why, but she wanted her. If Sam made it off world before it was destroyed then Secia is looking for her, that's what this is about, she's searching for Sam." says Daniel, "Can you follow her somehow, track her movements?." he asks.

"I believe I can follow the energy pattern she leave behind, yes." replies Nupir.

Llula shakes her head, "Oh, Daniel...I don't think this is a good idea." having reservations about following a powerful killer when they should logically be heading away from her, after thinking about it and considering all the factors, there's not really anything left for them to lose, "All right." she says.

"Thank you." says Daniel, with a hopeful smile.

Nupir fires up the barely working engines and takes the ship in to hyperspace following the destructive trail Secia leaves behind her.

* * *

**Hesperia**

* * *

It's been a few hours since Sam came back in to the cave after feeling dizzy from being out in the hot baking Sun, she couldn't make much sense of what Anesidora told her about the war her people were involved in and the fact she said she had been on this planet for millions of years, it didn't make sense, nothing was making sense any more, she eventually closed her eyes and got some rest.

Sam wakes up and sees that night time has set in and the distant clouds of thunder that they spotted earlier are now overhead, it's raining heavily outside and the sound of thunder and flashes of lightning echo and glow inside the cave, she walks over to the dying fire at the back of the cave, there's an angled hole in the ceiling above the fire to let the smoke out but the rain trickles through and it feels quite damp inside.

Anesidora has been gone for a while, she left just before the storm hit to find some food and water to get them by until the storm clears, she said these storms happen quite a lot and can last for days so they'll need supplies.

Clasping and holding the sides of her jacket closed in an attempt to keep warm, Sam picks up some dry broken sticks and throws them on to the fire, then pokes it repeatedly with another one to get the flames going again, she briefly glances over her shoulder when she hears footsteps splashing in puddles outside, she gets the fire going and then puts the stick down, lifting herself up and turning around.

"You've been gone a while, I thought you may have gotten..." says Sam as she turns around, "...lost." she finishes and begins trembling in fear.

She was expecting to see Anesidora, but as a bright roaring flash of lighting illuminates her from behind, Sam sees Secia standing in the entrance instead.


	19. Forces of nature

Sam stands in fear, staring in to the evil glaring eyes of Secia standing before her as they face each other, Secia has scars on her face, partly shredded clothing and part of her face and almost her entire right arm is grey and turned to stone, Vala obviously didn't go down without one hell of a fight, Secia stares with her head slightly lowered, her matted white scruffy hair dangles partly over her face and her eyes are bloodshot with rage.

"Found you at last." says Secia.

Sam is so scared she can't even speak.

"It has grown." says Secia, lowering her eyes looking at Sam's stomach.

Sam slower places her hands on her stomach, "Wh-...what do you want?." she asks, trying to fight the fear trembling through her.

Secia steps up to her, "I only want what is rightfully mine." she says.

"Want what?, I don't have anything." replies Sam.

"Oh but you do.." says Secia, she starts walking around Sam in a circle, "..what I want is inside of you." she says.

Sam has to think for a second before she realises what she means, "My baby?!" she asks, never for one second thinking that's what she was after, "..no, I won't let you." she says shaking her head.

Secia steps closer toe-to-toe and grabs her hair and pulling her head to the side, "Like you ever had a choice." she says.

Then Secia stops, her expression turns from rage to one of surprise and her eyes shift from side to side after hearing a voice behind her, a voice that numbs her body, a voice she recognises but thought would never hear again, a voice from her past.

"Step away from her." says Anesidora.

As Secia lets go of Sam and turns around to face her, Anesidora looks surprised and her jaw drops with complete shock and she drops her load of food and water on the ground.

"Secia!." says Anesidora, with her thoughts in chaos, then she leans to the side slightly to look at Sam, "She's the one at war with your planet?." she asks.

Sam nods fearfully but with relief that she's no longer alone, "Yes." she says.

Secia relaxes her body and places her hands behind her back like a child trying to look innocent, "Hello, Serin." she says, with a hint of gloating in her voice.

"Don't call me that..that name means nothing to me. My name is Anesidora."

"You know her?" asks Sam in confusion.

"She's..._was_ my sister." replies Anesidora, to Sam's horror, "How did you get out?" she asks, staring Secia right in the eyes.

Secia lets out a breath in frustration, "Why is that all anyone seems to be concerned about, Hedusa asked me the same thing. Aren't you happy to see me?." she says.

"Hedusa is alive?!." asks Anesidora.

"Not any more she's not." replies Secia with a happy giggle, "Hasn't lost her touch though." she adds, pointing out her stone arm to show her.

While Secia and Anesidora stand talking and clearly knowing each other and events from their past, Sam has slowly been inching herself away from them and around the cave walls, but Secia senses her moving and reaches around, grabbing her hair once again.

"Where do you think _you're_ going!" she shouts.

"Let her go!" shouts Anesidora, forcefully.

Secia really doesn't like being shouted at, she releases Sam's hair and then grabs her arm pulling her closer, then she runs towards Anesidora and releases some type of energy that tosses her out of the way into the wall and onto the floor knocking her unconscious before running out of the cave in to the storm.

* * *

A few minutes later Anesidora wakes up coughing on the dirty floor, she looks around a realises Sam isn't there as her memory returns and becomes clear she remembers what happened, quickly pushing herself to her feet she runs out of the cave and stands by the entrance, "Sam." she shouts, over the sound of the rain hitting the ground and thunder above.

She dashes around the immediate area trying to find her, the rain has washed away any tracks that would have been left behind, then she turns around and looks out in to the valley beneath, when the thunder flashes above and illuminates the ground below, she sees Secia dragging Sam and heading quickly towards the Stargate.

Anesidora gets angry trying to think of what to do, like Secia she also has power, but she hasn't used it in millions of years and is hesitant to do so, just thinking about it brings back bad memories, its like the war all over again, she doesn't have a choice, as Secia gets closer to the Stargate its now or never, she stands up straight and looks to the sky with her eyes closed in concentration, then she opens them and her eyes briefly glow in a flash of white light.

The dark thunder clouds above begin to swirl and compress, getting smaller and darker by the second and thunder gets louder and the cloud begins to flash with greater intensity, then a sudden massive burst of lighting comes out striking Secia and shocking her, sending both her and Sam hurtling through the air in different directions, Sam lands in a deep puddle of rain water near the Stargate and Secia lands on the hard dirty ground a few hundred meters behind.

Anesidora used the power of the storm which has now dissipated and cleared the skies, it's day time and sunlight floods the valley, Sam crawls her way out of the deep puddle through the soft mud and collapses on the ground as her arms give way, tired and exhausted from the ordeal.

Secia wakes up laying face down on the ground and in shock (no pun intended) at what happened, she struggles to her feet feeling herself getting weaker, stumbling on her feet she turns around and sees Anesidora standing a few meters away behind her, she looks at Anesidora bemused, "You have the power of the lightning, how?..." she says.

"They tried to kill me with it. I guess it backfired on them." says Anesidora.

"It really hurt." says Secia.

Anesidora squeezes her eyes closed for a moment, oddly feeling a little guilty, "Sorry." she says.

Secia looks over her shoulder when she hears Sam whimper as she lay on the ground, then she looks back, "Doesn't matter." she says, before turning and limping towards Sam.

"Don't do it." shouts Anesidora, walking swiftly to catch up to her.

"I'm going home." shouts Secia, not bothering to turn around.

"Secia, _stop_." says Anesidora.

Secia ignores her and continues walking, she crouches down when she reaches Sam and tries to force her on to her feet, but Anesidora catches up to her and grabs her from behind and pulls her away before throwing her to the ground.

"I told you to get away from her." says Anesidora.

Secia stands back up and is not willing to wait any longer, a fight erupts between them and kicks and punches are thrown, they start using their abilities on each other and the physical fight ends and a battle of power begins, energy fields and pulses are exchanged as they blow each other repeatedly across the open landscape.

After a violent exchange of energy causes a blast between them that blows them apart from each other, they use other things to fight with, Secia summons water from deep under ground, it bursts through the surface like a giant water jet and she directs it at Anesidora, but Anesidora counteracts it by gathering the heat from the planets surface and channelling it back towards Secia, as the two elements meet they block one another causing a huge cloud of steam to form all around them.

Then Secia fights dirty and causes a second jet of water to burst through the surface and hits Anesidora with it from behind, she's caught unaware and takes the full force of the water as she falls to the ground and it is channelled and forced in to her from above, so much water moving so rapidly burns and cuts her clothes and skin.

The fighting stops and Secia walks over to Anesidora, whose laying motionless in a deep hole that was carved in to the ground by the force of the water, she just looks at her laying there then turns and walks away without saying a word.

While they were fighting, Sam took advantage of the situation and the fact they were distracted to try and get away, but she was still weak and all she could do was crawl as fast as she could away from them, as she crawls along the ground she's kicked on the should forcing her to roll over on to her back, Secia stands on her arm pinning her down and then kneels, she places her hand on Sam's stomach which then glows as she extracts energy from within her.

Sam cries and screams with intense pain, then relief when Secia stops suddenly and looks towards the sound of a voice she just heard, she sees Anesidora standing near the whole where she left her and there are hundreds of rocks floating in the air around her, as Secia stands up the rocks come hurtling towards her, she raises her arms to cover her face in defence but it makes no difference, the rocks hit and knock her backwards then the remaining rocks strike her one after another like a thousands sledge hammers, this time pummelling her in to the ground.

* * *

**Pixie**

* * *

They have been following the destructive trail Secia left behind her as she appeared to move from planet to planet and destroying each one in turn as she searched for Sam, the last planet they came too was at the edge of the galaxy and they temporarily lost the trail, realising Secia must have crossed to the next galaxy they continued to push forward even with their engines in critical condition, eventually they caught up and are now on approach to Hesperia.

"What happened to all the stars?" asks Llula, looking out in to space and seeing only a single planet and a sun, and complete darkness like all the stars have vanished.

"Hmm, this galaxy appears to be experiencing some kind of dimensional fluctuation. Very odd indeed." says Nupir.

"What about the planet, is Secia down there?." asks Daniel.

"Bring up the HUD." orders Llula.

The HUD is activated and moments later an image of the planets atmosphere is displayed, as they focus and zoom the image they see activity on the surface, they see Anesidora walking towards a pile of rocks and a short distance away someone laying in the dirt.

Daniel leans forward and instructs Nupir to zoom in closer, "Focus on that area.." he says, pointing to the person laying in the dirt.

As the image focusses in, it's clear who it is, "Sam!" says Daniel, "She's alive." he adds.

"Who is that with her?, doesn't look like Secia." says Llula.

"We need to get down there, we have to do something." says Daniel.


	20. Falling down

After bombarding Secia with rocks, Anesidora takes a deep breath and then walks over to the pile of broken rocks, Secia is laying partly covered with them, alive and conscious but clearly hurt.

"Stop this." asks Anesidora.

"I can't." replies Secia, pushing off the rocks and trying to stand.

Anesidora doesn't know why she does it, but she reaches out and helps her to her feet, "I can't do this again." she says.

"Then let me go home." says Secia.

"Home?, you were home, Secia." says Anesidora.

"No, that's where you left me, alone." replies Secia.

"You weren't alone, you had your Gods to keep you company." says Anesidora.

"They weren't there, you made them disappear." says Secia.

Anesidora lowers her head in thought, "What." she mumbles, her thoughts return to the war..

* * *

**Flashback – Several million years ago**

* * *

...On the fields of El Sian, the war waged on as each side got closer and closer to victory.

Anesidora saw the rage in Secia's eyes, she was ripping her way across the battle field leaving a bloody trail of corpses behind her, she had become unstable, too caught up in the war, she even started attacking and brutally killing her own people, soon the fields were covered in a blanket of blood, it was clear she was never going to stop.

The Gods were no help, watching and cheering her on from afar, they were enjoying the slaughter as much as she was.

Something had to be done, Anesidora made her way through the warring armies to the Cornucopia and took control of the Nectar for herself, she knew no one deserved to have this much power, especially Secia or the Gods, she used its power to open a portal to another reality and transported people to safety...

Looking in to the soul of her sister, she knew it was too late to save her, she was lost to the darkness and the influence of the Gods, as Secia attempted to stop her and follow them through the portal, Anesidora closed it...leaving Secia behind...

* * *

"No." says Anesidora, shaking her head, "They didn't come through, I'm certain of it. I would know if they did." she adds.

"Well all I know is they weren't there. I was there alone, it took me millions of years to gather enough Nectar to allow me to break through in to this universe. Now I need the rest so I can undo what you did and go home." replies Secia.

"You can't do that. It will start all over again, the Gods don't care about us, they only care about themselves. No more bloodshed." says Anesidora.

"I have to do this, it's who I am." says Secia.

Anesidora steps up to Secia and brushes her hand through her hair, "No, this is what they turned you into. You want to use the Nectar to restore things to how they were, but I can't let you. Our home is gone and the war is over. You have to stop, leave it alone." she says.

Secia lowers her head onto Anesidora's chest as she continues to rub her hair and she appears calm for a moment, then just as Anesidora believes she's finally getting through to her, Secia lifts her head and pushes Anesidora's hand away from her.

"No!." says Secia, she extends her stone arm and grabs Anesidora by the throat, "I'm going home." she says, then tosses Anesidora far on to the hard ground.

* * *

**Pixie**

* * *

Since their arrival above Hesperia and finding out Sam is alive on the surface, Daniel, Llula and Nupir have been trying to think of a way to get to her, they can't use the Stargate because it's a foreign gate and they don't know the address or how it works, there are no other planets near by anyway, they tried the ring transporter but it doesn't work, no rings on this world.

"Are you sure about this?." asks Llula, concerned about Daniels suggestion.

"It's Sam. I'm sorry, I know what I'm asking you to do but...I can't leave her there." replies Daniel.

"What about weapons, we don't have anything on board." says Llula.

Daniel thinks for a moment then has an idea, he races back to his make-shift room and picks up the probe he was making and brings it back on to the bridge, "Nupir, can you modify this, make it in to a weapon some how?." he asks.

Nupir rubs his chin and gives the probe a look over, "Possibly, I will need a few minutes." he says.

A few minutes later Nupir brings the probe back, he hands it to Daniel, "Here you are." he says.

"It looks the same?." questions Daniel.

"Yes. The base of the probe is actually comprised of a Naquadah power core, I simply had to remove the buffer module to allow the energy produced to be released through the tail end." explains Nupir.

"So now it's a weapon?." asks Daniel.

"Pushing this button should give you a powerful burst of energy – or the device could explode in your hands. It's fifty-fifty really, good luck." replies Nupir.

"...thank's..." replies Daniel, holding the probe with caution.

As Daniel steps in to an alcove, Llula follows him over and ensures he's securely strapped in, they occasionally share an emotional glance in to each others eyes, "Still time to back out." she says.

"You know I can't." replies Daniel.

Llula nods, "I know." she says, then she leans forward and kisses him on the lips, "Good luck" she adds.

Daniel responds with just gentle smile.

* * *

**Hesperia**

* * *

Anesidora gets to her feet and looks around for Secia, she's almost caught up with Sam, she looks over to the pile of rocks and makes them float once again and hurtling through the air at Secia, as Sam tries in vein to scurry away on the ground, Secia catches up with her and begins the energy extraction causing Sam serious pain, as the rocks come towards her she raises an arm and deflects them away.

Then as the energy increases her strength, she uses its power and causes the ground around her and Sam to crack and break in to a large chunk several hundred meters across, looking like a small island it begins levitating off the ground and floats upward in to the air.

"Stop!" shouts Anesidora, running towards the floating mass and leaping in to the air and grabbing hold of the edge just before it goes out of reach, she hands precariously on the edge as it continues to rise.

The extraction process is moving faster than she thought, as Anesidora hangs and looks back down, grass and trees start appearing on the surface, fading in to existence like ghosts, Secia is trying to reverse the transportation and take Hesperia back to her home reality.

Secia is distracted by a screeching sound from above, turning her head to look she sees an object falling from the sky, it crashes in to the edge of the land mass, it's an escape pod from the Pixie, the outer cover of the pod blows open with tiny explosives causing the cover to blow over the side.

Secia lets go of Sam and stands in wonder at seeing the pod.

"Daniel." shouts Sam in desperation after seeing him emerge seconds later from within the pod.

Daniel sees Secia and points the weaponized probe at her, but as he pushes the button nothing happens, "Oh, good work Nupir!." he moans, as Secia walks towards him looking extremely irritated.

Frantically pushing the firing button over and over and shaking the probe trying to get it to fire, he eventually looks back up and is taken by surprise when Secia punches him in the side of the face causing him to fall to the ground.

Secia reaches down and grabs him firmly before lifting him up, "Are you insane?!" she asks.

"That's funny..." says Daniel, trying to speak through the choke hold he's currently enduring, "..I was going to ask you the same thing." he adds.

"Drop him!" shouts Anesidora, she managed to pull herself up the side of the land mass and on to the top.

Secia looks at her, "Gladly." she says, then she throws him violently at Anesidora, he hits her causing them both to fall and tumble over the edge, but they manage to grip on.

As Secia returns to continue extracting energy from Sam, she gets two feet away from her and then hears another voice, she stops in her tracks and turns around, "Who are you?." she asks.

Llula is standing there holding the weaponized probe, a last minute change of plans meant that she got in the escape pod with Daniel as backup, too bad for Secia she didn't bother to look.

"Llula." she says.

Pushing the firing button on the probe a powerful energy beam is emitted, the force is so powerful that it pushes Llula backwards off her feet and she ends up back inside the pod, the blast hits Secia with full force and sends her flying off the floating land mass, Sam is relieved to hear Secia screaming for a change.

A few moments later Llula pulls herself out of the pod, "Is she gone?." she asks.

"Yeah." says Sam, laying on her back and slamming the back of her head on the ground from exhaustion.

"Err...little help here." shouts Daniel, dangling off the edge with Anesidora.

Llula runs over and bends down to get a grip on Daniels arm, using her knees she manages to pull him up and he in turn help to pull Anesidora back up, they all lay on the ground completely shattered.

Their relief is short lived when the land mass begins to shake, with Secia no longer in control of the land mass it begins to fall rapidly back to the surface, "It's falling back down!." shouts Anesidora.


	21. Descending

"Sam" shouts Daniel, crawling over the shaky surface of the land mass as it plummets towards the ground below.

"Daniel." shouts Sam.

Daniel and Llula crawl over to Sam and they all bunch up in a huddle and hold each other, they all feel relief, Daniel is relieved that Sam is alive and he finally got to her, Llula is relieved that they're both safe, Sam is relieved to have a friend with her, someone she knows, someone she trusts, but at the same time they're all aware of the perilous situation they now face.

Anesidora tries to use her abilities to slow the mass but her recent fight with Secia has taken too much out of her and she's too weak.

Keeping low on the ground, Anesidora crawls to the edge of the land mass and gripping the side she pulls herself forward to look over the side with the whistling wind blowing in her eyes at the ground below as it gets closer and closer, she sees the Stargate below and extends her arm out over the side towards it.

"Come on!" she shouts, in concentration.

The Stargate shakes and breaks out of the ground and starts to float, Anesidora is controlling it, it then heads upwards towards the land mass and spins in the air, she flips herself over on her back as the Stargate reaches the mass and it slowly moves over the surface hovering a few feet above it, at the same time it activates forming a wormhole.

"What are you doing?." asks Daniel.

"Jump!" shouts Anesidora.

"What?!" replies Daniel.

"Jump in to the wormhole...hurry up we don't have any time!" replies Anesidora.

They don't know what's going on but they do as she asks, Daniel and Llula help Sam to her feet and as the Stargate approaches them they run toward it and jump through the event horizon and it shuts off.

Anesidora then makes it quickly move away back toward the ground below but a distance away, it shoots through the air very quickly and suddenly stops horizontally several feet above the ground, a wormhole forms within the gate yet again and moments later Daniel, Sam and Llula fall out of it, the gate shuts down and slams to the ground around them.

She used the Stargate as a means of transporting them safely to the surface, the others now safe and sitting on the ground look up towards the falling land mass and wonder how Anesidora is going to get off of it, but she can't, it's too late.

As the land mass is about to hit the ground, Llula, Daniel and Sam bunch together again and turn away falling back on the ground, "Get down." shouts Llula.

* * *

The land mass hits the ground at great force, it lightly bounces before breaking in to thousands of pieces, a shock wave from the impact sweeps over the landscape throwing up a huge cloud of dirt, dust and debris, large broken rocks fly in to the air and fall to the ground all around them.

When the dust settles they all get to their feet, the air still has a haze of dust floating in it like a light fog, but they can see through it, looking over they see a large pile of broken rocks on the ground where the land mass impacted.

"Where are you going?." asks Llula, when Sam starts walking away towards the rubble.

"We have to find her." replies Sam.

Daniel rushes to catch up and stands in front of her halting her movement, "Sam, ..I don't think there's anything to find. I'm sorry but she's dead, no one could have survived that." he says.

"She can't die, she's immortal." replies Sam.

"She is?." asks Daniel.

"Yes.." says Sam, walking around him and continuing forward, "..now come on." she adds.

They reach the large pile of rocks and clamber over them, lifting and kicking rocks out of the way in search of Anesidora, it's a mangled broken mess and they think they may not find here at all.

"Well there's the pod.." says Daniel, seeing part of the broken escape pod sticking out from under a rock, "..part of it anyway." he adds.

Sam stands on a tall protruding rock and shapes her hands around her mouth like a loud horn, "Anesidora." she shouts over and over.

"Anesi..." Daniel starts to shout, "...wait. Anesidora?." he asks.

"Yeah." replies Sam.

Llula hears a muffled sound a short distance away and quietly walks over the rocks to locate it, she bends down and picks up a rock, she sees an arm underneath, "Guys over here!" she shouts.

Sam and Daniel rush over and join her, together they scramble to move all the rocks, picking them up and tossing them aside, when her upper body is visible Sam kneels down beside her and holds her hand, she's only known Anesidora for a short time and wasn't completely sure of her intentions, but she fought for them and saved their lives, she's earned their trust, "Hey, are you all right?." she asks.

* * *

Anesidora understandably has cuts and bruises all over her face and body, "I will be." she says, flinching briefly in pain when Daniel and Llula push a large rock off of her legs.

"Thank you, for saving our lives." says Sam.

"You're welcome." replies Anesidora.

Daniel helps her to sit up, he looks at her curiously while kneeling beside her, "You're...you're Pandora, aren't you?." he asks.

"Pandora?." asks Anesidora.

"On our planet she was the first woman created by the Gods of Greece, it's a myth but..as well as Pandora, some cultures knew her by her other name Anesidora." explains Daniel.

Anesidora shrugs her shoulders, she's been on Hesperia since her arrival in this universe and had no prior contact with anyone, "I don't think that's me." she says.

While they've been talking, Llula had quietly walked away from them after noticing something strange in the sky above, it's a colourful warping swirling circle in the sky that appears to be growing, "What's that?." she asks, loud enough so the others could hear her.

"What's what?." asks Daniel, looking over to her.

Llula points at the sky, "That." she says.

They all look up and see the swirl, "Oh no." says Anesidora, in a worried tone of voice and pushing herself on to her feet.

"Something wrong?." asks Sam.

The swirl then quickly expands with chaotic sparks of what looks like lighting shooting out around it, then a dark shadow covers the valley floor as an enormous object starts emerging from within it.

"It's a portal, a dimensional portal." says Anesidora, "Secia must have started the process before you shot her, now it's opening." she adds.

As the object continues to emerge through the portal, its black and grey in colour, about a mile wide and clearly metallic.

"What is that thing?." asks Llula.

"It's a ship, the Othrin." replies Anesidora, staring at it and looking increasingly stressed.

"A ship, whose flying it?." asks Daniel.

While they were all distracted by the sight above them, they were unaware that Secia had survived being shot and the subsequent fall, making her way back towards the pile of rocks she quietly walked over them, "Gods." she says, now standing right behind them and looking to the sky.

Jumping and turning around at the sound of her voice, Daniel immediately places himself in a protective stance in front of Sam and Llula.

Anesidora steps up to her, "What have you done?!" she asks, worryingly.

"I'm going home." replies Secia, looking to the skies and smiling.

The ship descends and hovers a few hundred meters above the ground.

Anesidora reaches out and grabs Secia and pulls her in close, "You idiot!." she shouts, Secia starts laughing, "Send them back." demands Anesidora, "Send them back!" she shouts, shaking Secia in anger.

"What is happening?" shouts Sam, everyone is panicked and confused.

Then a deep voice is heard, "Kneel before your Gods."


	22. A burden to bear

Secia breaks free of Anesidora's grip and barges past her, leaving Anesidora standing frozen in fear, she runs happily towards a group of people that suddenly appeared standing on the surface behind them, several men and women are standing in a group by the edge of the rock pile, dressed in dark clothing and gowns covered in strips or gold, their appearance is human and they don't look pleased, a man standing in the middle of the group appears to be the leader.

When Secia reaches them she falls to her knees in front of them, "My Gods, I am humbled before you." she says, "After a millennia of searching, I am with you again at last." she says.

The man lowers his head to look at her, "You have done well, Secia. Your Gods are pleased."

Secia smiles, "Can we go home now?." she asks.

"Mmm." he mumbles, he then lifts his head, "You!" he shouts, "You are the one." he adds, then he walks quickly past Secia and over to the others standing on the rocks.

"Kneel before your Gods." he demands.

Daniel looks at him with interest, another man standing before him like so many others in the past, the Goa'uld, the Ori all claiming to be Gods demanding to be worshipped and their every command should be obeyed, whatever.

"Yeeeeah, I don't think so." says Daniel.

One of the women from the group steps forward and outstretches her arm, she uses some kind of power to numb their bodies and force them to their knees.

Sam looks over to Anesidora who has her back turned, "Anesidora." she says, wondering why she isn't moving and trying to get her attention.

The man stands right behind Anesidora, "Face me." he demands, "Turn and face your God!" he shouts.

Anesidora slowly turns around with her head lowered.

"Who the _hell_ are you people?." asks Daniel, struggling to move.

Anesidora raises her head to look at the man before her, "The Altitans." she says.

"For so long we have waited, stuck in the void between dimensions, waiting for this day. Now. kneel...before..your..God." he clearly demands in a very angry tone.

"_No!_" replies Anesidora in complete defiance, "You're not my God, Cro'us. I will not kneel before you." she adds.

Unhappy with her response, Cro'us grips her tightly around the throat and pulls her so close she can smell his stinking breath, "Who do you think you are, disobeying your Gods commands, taking what doesn't belong to you, do you think you're better than us, did you believe that we would never find you, that you would go unpunished for your betrayal?!" he moans in disgust with her, "Answer me, mortal!." he demands.

"You don't..." says Anesidora, choking from Cro'us' hold, "..deserve the title of Gods."

Cro'us gets even more angry and turns around, violently throwing Anesidora through the air on to the hard jagged rocks.

"Anesidora!" shouts Sam, concerned for her.

"She's not mortal.." says Secia, before shutting up and lowering her head realising she spoke out of turn, "..forgive me, may I speak?." she asks.

"Speak!" replies Cro'us.

"She has the power of immortality, as I now do." says Secia.

Cro'us walks over to Anesidora laying on the ground, he kicks her on to her back, her nose and mouth are bleeding from hitting the ground so hard, "Then she will be made to suffer for eternity. You may be immortal, but that doesn't mean we can't inflict pain upon you." he says, then he turns around, "Where do you come from?" he asks.

"Earth." says Sam.

"Where is this...Earth?, are there more of your kind." asks Cro'us.

"We're spread pretty thin at the moment. Your little worshipper over there destroyed it, and killed most of our kind in the process." says Daniel.

Cro'us looks pleased at hearing the news of Secia's destruction, "You have done well, Secia. You have earned your place among the Gods." he says.

Secia smiles, "You hear that, Serin, I'm a God." she shouts.

"Now, where is the Nectar?." asks Cro'us.

Anesidora laughs through her pain, "I destroyed it." she says.

"I do not believe that even you are capable of destroying something that powerful." says Cro'us.

"Believe what you want." says Anesidora.

Cro'us glances around, "I don't see your Gods anywhere, do they have it?." he asks.

"No, I told you I destroyed it. Neither of you deserved to have control of that much power." replies Anesidora.

Cro'us gets angry, he bends down and grabs her picking her up once again, "Enough of your lies, where are the Olimpians?!" he asks angrily.

"They're gone, it's all gone, there's nothing for you here so why don't you just leave." says Anesidora.

"She has it, she has the Nectar." shouts Secia, pointing at Sam and bouncing on her toes, "Its inside her." she adds.

"Shut up, Secia!." shouts Anesidora.

Cro'us drops Anesidora on the floor like she's nothing, "Thank you." he says as he walks away towards Sam.

* * *

With every ounce of strength her has, Daniel tries frantically to move and protect Sam, but he can't move, he's on his knees and stuck like glue to the floor just like the others, "Leave her alone." he shouts.

"Daniel." says Sam through a fearful breath as she watches Cro'us get closer.

"Sam..." says Daniel, as Cro'us walks passed he leans out to grab him but misses, "..you son of a b*tch, leave her alone." he shouts with his face turning red desperately trying to move.

Cro'us reaches out with determination in his eyes, as his fingers reach within millimetres of Sam, he stops when a large rock strikes him in the back of the head, he slowly looks around to see Anesidora glaring back at him.

"Get away from her." she demands, holding the side of her leg still in pain from her injuries.

"You dare strike a God?!" says Cro'us.

"There are no Gods here." replies Anesidora.

Cro'us is slightly impressed with her insolence, "Why do you care about them so much, these mortals are nothing, they're born, they serve us and they die, that is their purpose, there reason for being." he says.

"They..._we_..are not your property, we're born to serve no one, and we're not objects for you to use in your twisted games." replies Anesidora, limping toward him.

"You display so much anger toward us and for the wrongs you think we have done, yet you yourself fought in battle and spilt blood in the name of your Gods, as did your sister." says Cro'us.

"At the time I thought I was doing the right thing, even so, I was fighting for defence, for survival. My sister fought because she enjoyed it, she killed millions with her bare hands and each kill gave her pleasure, because you turned her in to a monster." shouts Anesidora.

Anesidora stops a few feet away from Cro'us and takes a few deep breaths.

"At least the Olimpians showed some compassion, I fought for them on the fields of El Sian because they were good to us, they gave us food and medicine to heal the sick and never asked us for anything in return, until you corrupted them. I knew then that the war would never end, you both became as sick and deluded as each other, I couldn't allow either of you to possess the Nectar, so I took it..I took it and I used it to save as many people as I could, then I destroyed it because no one, not even a God deserves to have that much power." says Anesidora.

Anesidora limps over to Sam, "It's true, I don't know how, but the Nectar has formed again within her." then she goes back to Cro'us, "But I won't let you have it, and I certainly won't let you kill her to get it." she says.

"I see." says Cro'us, he then lowers his head looking deceptively calm, then suddenly swings his arm back before punching Anesidora, she's knocked off her feet and on to her back a few meters away.

After landing hard on the ground she scrambles to sit up, quickly looking around at Cro'us and the others, she sees the other men and women of the group, the other Altitans walking in her direction, she gets to her feet as they slowly surround her, "You can't kill me." she says.

"No, but we can hurt you. You will spend eternity in pieces." replies Cro'us, "Punish her!" he commands to the others.

A fight erupts between Anesidora and the Altitans, its mainly physical kicks and punches but powers are used and blasts of energy are exchanged, they circle her, caging her in a ring of pain, even though she's greatly outnumbered she fights back and gets some good hits in, she strikes the women that numbed the others which removes her hold on them enabling them to move.

They run to each other, "Sam, go with Llula, get her out of here." says Daniel, quietly so not to alert Cro'us, he then looks back and sees Anesidora hunched down on the ground with her hands over her head as the Altitans close the circle around her and punch and kick her head and body.

Daniel can't just stand by and watch a friend being hurt like this, its not in his nature, "GO!" he shouts, then he turns around and runs towards the bunch, running straight past Cro'us he jumps through the air leaping on to the back of one of the men, getting a choke hold around his neck and trying to pull him away.

The man reaches around his back and grabs Daniel, he pulls him around looking very angry and holding him in the air by the collar of his shirt, he then hits him with a blast of energy sending him flying back through the air and landing on a large jagged rock.

Sam was rushing away with Llula when she glanced back and saw the whole thing, "No." she screams.

"Oh no." says Llula.

They both immediately turn around and head back for him.

When they reach him its clear he's in a bad way, the sharp jagged rock he landed on is sticking out of his chest, it broke his back and punctured his lung, he lays on the ground conscious and breathing heavily with blood coming from his mouth, "Oh my God, Daniel, Daniel." says Sam, taking Llula's jacket and pressing it on his wound to try stop the bleeding.

Llula takes over and Sam moves around him, she leans over and holds his head.

"S...Sam.." stutters Daniel, in great pain, finding it difficult to talk.

"I'm here, Daniel.." says Sam, crying at the sight of him, "..Don't leave me...Don't leave me..." she adds.

He takes a few more hard breaths and then stops, complete silence and no movement, he's gone.

Sam slumps over with her head on his shoulder and just cries.

* * *

Behind them, Anesidora has taken a beating, enduring the full wrath of the Gods, she lays in a ball, beaten and weak, as the last of the punches are thrown the Altitans step back and widen the circle leaving her laying their on the ground.

Cro'us steps through the group and bends down beside her, "Do you now see how pathetic you are, you're nothing compared to the Gods." he says, he then stands and looks over at Secia, she's just been standing there the whole time, "Secia, come forward." he shouts.

Secia comes over and looks at Anesidora but then quickly looks away.

"Dismember her." commands Cro'us.

"What?" asks Secia, she heard him the first time.

"Dismember her." says Cro'us, irritated at having to repeat himself.

Secia looks at Anesidora on the floor but doesn't move, "Do as I command!" shouts Cro'us, getting inpatient.

Secia's expression starts to show signs of actual emotion, she shakes her head, "No." she says.

"What?" asks Cro'us.

"No, I...I can't. I won't." replies Secia

Cro'us steps up to her and looks down on her with anger and disappointment, "You're weak, you don't deserve to be one of us." he shouts, "Themis, you do it." he commands.

"Not a problem." says Themis, she steps over Anesidora and grabs her arm, using her foot for leverage on her chest, she begins to pull at it to rip it off.

Secia stands and watches, she looks around at each of the Altitans who are watching and laughing, cheering Themis on, she starts to think of everything Anesidora told her about the Gods, then as she hears her painful screams she's hit with a lot of emotion, emotions she hasn't felt in a long time, this is her sister, what are they doing, who the hell do they think they are.

Themis is continuing to pull at Anesidora's arm, then suddenly a large sword penetrates her chest, she pulls it out and then they all look back at Secia in surprise, it was her who threw the sword.

"Leave my sister alone." demands Secia, slowly walking over.

Themis doesn't listen, foolishly thinking that Secia is no threat to her, she raises the sword ready to stab Anesidora then is struck by a boulder twice her size which knocks her out of the way and crushes her.

"What do you think you're doing?!" asks Cro'us.

Secia swings her arms around and Cro'us and the others are pushed out of the way, she stops and kneels beside her sister, she looks back at her, "I see it now." she says.

"See what?" ask Anesidora, still laying on the floor in pain.

"The true nature of the Gods." replies Secia, she clasps Anesidora's hand, "I'm sorry." she says, then stands back up and walks away.

"Wait." shouts Anesidora, in too much pain to get up.

Secia walks back towards the Altitans, she once again has her head slightly lowered, her hair partly hanging over her face and rage in her eyes, looking as menacing as ever, an orange glow of energy surrounds her, she never finished opening the portal the first time, it was the Altitans that did that, so she still has a lot of Nectar she took from Sam flowing through her, just enough.

"What are you doing?!" shouts Cro'us, seeing the portal opening in the sky.

"I'm going home." replies Secia, the portal widens and the Altitan ship Othrin begins to rise back up, "..and you're coming with me." she adds.

They try to stop her but she deflects their energy pulses.

"Stop!" commands Cro'us, "Obey me, I am your God." he shouts.

"Not anymore." replies Secia.

As the Othrin enters the portal, the Altitans are lifted off their feet and sucked up in to it, to the screaming displeasure of Cro'us, then Secia is engulfed in the orange energy and is swept through the portal like a glistening trail of tiny stars, then the portal closes with a loud snap of thunder.

* * *

Anesidora managed to turn herself over to see the whole thing, she opens her hand and looks in her palm, Secia placed her necklace in her hand before she walked away.

A while later Anesidora gets her strength back and manages to get to her feet, she walks over to Sam and Llula who are still beside Daniel's body.

"Oh, are you all right?." asks Llula, turning when she saw her shadow on the rock.

"Yes." says Anesidora, she looks at Daniel, "I'm sorry about your friend." she says.

Sam looks up, wiping a tear off the tip of her nose, her face and eyes red and tired looking from crying, "Everyone's gone now, Jack, Teal'c, Daniel, Earth..there's nothing left." she says.

Then she falls backwards in surprise when her hands start faintly glowing.

"Wohw, what is that?" she asks.

"That is the Nectar." says Anesidora.

"The energy they were all after?." asks Llula.

"Yes." says Anesidora.

Sam gets to her feet and takes a few steps back, the glow slowly spreading over her body and getting brighter, "Well...why is it doing that." she asks, panicking.

Anesidora walks over to her and holds her hands, "When Secia opened the portal, the energy became active." she says.

"Can you make it stop?." asks Llula, concerned.

Anesidora shakes her head, "It's too late." she says.

"Too late?, too late for what, what's happening to me?!" asks Sam.

"Do you remember when the portal opened, what were you thinking at that moment?" asks Anesidora.

Sam thinks for a second, "I..I don't...I don't remember. Why?!" she says.

"The Nectar is controlled by thought, it's been activated which means its going to do what you were thinking at that moment." says Anesidora.

"I don't remember, make it stop please." says Sam.

The energy then glows brightly all around her, Anesidora lets go of her hands and steps aside with Llula, Sam is looking all over the place and panicking wondering what the heck is going on, moments later the energy pulses in a bright blinding flash of light.

* * *

Sam stares in to the distance like she's in a trance, then shakes her head like she's waking from a day dream, she's confused by the large pane of glass in front of her, she looks down and sees a table, she's sitting in a chair, she's in the briefing room at the SGC, then she remembers what her thought was, she wanted to be with her friends and loved ones, she sharply straightens her posture when she hears a voice.

"Sam."

She slowly turns her head and then with a gasp she leaps from her chair knocking it to the floor, "Jack" she shouts, running over and throwing her arms around him and kissing him repeatedly all over his face then hugging him tightly.

"Okay." says Jack, "Are you all right, you looked a little spaced out there." he says.

"You're alive." she says.

"Yeah. I hope so." says Jack.

"Should we take these receptacles to the car, O'Neill?." asks Teal'c, entering the room with Daniel and carrying a large box.

Sam gives Teal'c a hug, "Oh, Teal'c. Daniel." she shouts, Teal'c smiles and looks at Jack whose shrugging indicating he has no idea why she's acting so strangely.

"Are you feeling well, Colonel Carter?." asks Teal'c.

"I am now." replies Sam, grabbing Daniel and hugging them both simultaneously.

"What do you have there?." asks Daniel, pointing at Sam's hand.

Sam is holding a necklace, the same necklace that Secia gave to Anesidora, she must have put it in her hand, "Oh, er, I'm not sure." she says, then hands it to Daniel.

Daniel examines it, "Its Babylonian I think, a Akkadian symbol it means erm...Hope." he says then hands it back to her, "Its pretty old, where'd you get it?." he asks.

"I err..just holding it for a friend." replies Sam, putting it in to her pocket.

"Come on guys, what are you doing lets go, its almost 6 o'clock." says Alisana, standing at the door.

"Oh my God." says Sam softly as she walks over to her, "Alisana." she says.

"Hey, Sam." replies Alisana.

Sam just stares at her in disbelief for a moment and then lunges at her and grabs her, she gives her the tightest hug she's ever given.

"Nice to see you too, Sam." says Alisana, she taps her on the shoulder, "Sam. Sam I can't breath." she says.

"Oh, sorry." says Sam, releasing the hug and lightly laughing with happiness.

"Okay, come on guys we've got a lot of moving to do." says Alisana, bossing them about, "Are you coming, Sam?." she asks.

"Coming?." asks Sam, unsure of what she means.

"To Jacks, I'm moving in remember, today's moving day." says Alisana.

"Yeah...oh, you know, I'm feeling pretty tired actually I may just go home, but I'll come over tomorrow and help you unpack." says Sam.

"All right. See ya." says Alisana, she waves and leaves with Teal'c and Daniel.

"Are you sure you're all right?" asks Jack, concerned with her behaviour.

"I'm fine. I'm just happy you're all here." says Sam.

Jack accepts her answer, "All right, well I have to do this moving thing so...see you tomorrow?." he says.

"Yeah." says Sam, they give each other a kiss and then Jack heads out.

Sam turns around but remains standing still, while she was hugging everyone she made a worrying discovery, she no longer has her baby bump.

It seems that the Nectar energy some how reversed the destructive events or some how sent her back in time, Earth obviously hasn't been destroyed and everyone is alive, including Alisana, but she still remembers everything that happened, all the death and destruction, all the memories are still with her as clear as day, but Alisana died before her moving day so she can't have been sent back in time.

The only explanation is that the Nectar undid everything Secia had done and changed some things in the process, hopefully this means that Secia isn't back out there somewhere waiting to attack, only time will tell.

* * *

Later that night, Sam is at home, she's sitting on the edge of her bed with a pillow on her knees, she's crying, finding that her baby bump was gone had really shook and upset her, she's now reliving the deaths of her friends and millions of others as the memories play over and over in her head, Jack, Teal'c, Daniel, Vala, she saw them all die, not forgetting the memories of the torture she endured at the hands of Secia.

She moves the pillow and stands up then walks over to the chest of drawers and picks up a small plastic stick and looks at it.

She collapses to her knees and begins crying even more, but they're tears of joy this time.

On the floor beside her is the plastic stick, on the stick is a small digital screen displaying tiny letters...'_Positive._'

* * *

**The End.**

* * *

_**Well I hope you enjoyed that, you didn't think I was going let every be dead and everything destroyed did you?. Nope, everyone including Alisana is back alive and well, the universe is whole once again and Sam will still have her baby. Sam is the only person who remembers everything that happened over the last several months and we'll find out how she deals with that in future stories.**_

_**Also please checkout my "Concussion Origins" story that I've just posted so you can find out who everyone was, if you didn't figure it out already. As a bonus to my readers I've also included an extra ending to this story so its worth checking out :)**_

_**My next complete story will be posted soon.**_

**Thanks for sticking with me and I hope you enjoyed this one as much as I did writing it.**


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